


A Stranger Among Us

by Nanouk



Category: Constantine (2005), Underworld (Movies)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-03 23:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 32
Words: 51,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5311301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanouk/pseuds/Nanouk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: The young death dealer Nathalka scouts the great city of Helsingfors hoping to find Lycans but instead finds someone she never had counted on, and she needs him now more than ever now that a great danger lurks from the south. Not an Underworld fanfic but set in the same universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Raindrops fell from the sky in great numbers as I carefully scouted the rooftops from my position on top of the great building of the Lutheran church at the Unioninkatu. Everything seemed calm tonight, but looks can be deceiving. I felt the rain stream from my dark hair down my face and the wind tearing at my long leather coat. It didn’t bother me much, I was far too concentrated on my task, making sure that whatever would go bump in the night didn’t get out to the public. In the past centuries death dealers from all over the continent had become more and more obsolete since the Great War that raged the underworld about 150 years ago. We hunted the Lycans down near the brink of extinction, at least so it seemed. As Lycan sightings and attacks got more rare, the cases that did come to our attention were more aggressive and brutal than ever. A dying species desperately trying to maintain their right to exist in our world.

As most of the beasts fled from the eastern European countries, across the Baltic Sea into Fennoskandia, I followed. While the rest of the European covens were celebrating the victories over the Lycan clans, I did not stop hunting these animals. We were close, so close to the total extinction of our arch enemies, I would not stop now. Not while there were still Lycans to hunt.

My duties brought me north, across the Gulf of Finland into a land which at that time was unknown to me. More of my clan decided to follow and our new headquarters were founded within the ancient fortress of Olavinlinna. Inside Olavinlinna we waited, we waited for the Lycans to show their monstrous forms again so we could hunt them down and get rid of them once and for all. It didn’t take long before we got the first reports of mortals who were brutally killed in their homes at night. The media showed eyewitness reports of strange wolf attacks. Wolves were known for their aversion towards humans so we knew better; the Lycans were back, and this time they had preyed on the innocent souls of the Norse countries. So far our hunt had been successful, mainly because we had the element of surprise. Where they went we would follow and I would not give up until I had killed every last one of these filthy beasts.

About two days ago our attention was caught by rumors of violent animal attacks within the city of Helsingfors. A team of death dealers was brought together to scout the city for any strange activities.

I scouted the square on Unioninkatu centimeter by centimeter, to see if there was anything out of the usual. So far it had been a calm night. Until my attention was drawn to a dark figure among the many drunken teens who were trying to find their way home in this horrible weather. It seemed like a young tall human, definitely not someone from here. There seemed some sort of energy radiating from him. Something that drew my attention to him.

I readjusted my position on top of the tuomiokirkko to get a closer look, my muscles felt a breath of relief as my cold blood returned into my limbs This guy definitely didn’t belong here but he also didn’t have the stench of Lycan written over him. I decided to stalk him for a few blocks to see what he was up to. He followed the Unioninkatu until he turned right near the University building into the Rauhankatu where he took another turn into an alley.

He started to slow his pace, I continued following him but with more caution. It seemed like he started to have the feeling he was being followed this could mean danger. I did not want to have to kill him. I kept trying to make out his scent, definitely not Lycan but also not mere mortal, it wasn’t anything I had experienced before. He walked further into the alley until he abruptly stopped walking. I stopped as well my finger tingling ready to raise a weapon when needed.

 

Then, almost faster than my immortal senses could register, he turned around and threw some kind of weapon at me. Lucky for me my reaction speed was still inhuman as always and he missed. I didn’t wait for him to take another shot at me and charge forth to meet him for a good old wrestling game. As a wild cat defending its territory I released my fury upon him. But unlike anything I anticipated he pushed back with equal force. He smacked me hard across the face, causing me to lose my balance for a second, and feeling my lip tear. The copper taste of blood filled my mouth.

“That’s no way to treat a lady” I said and smirked a girlish grin. This guy was putting up a fight, and I am liking it. The fact that neither of us had reached for our guns yet suggested this was a ‘fair fight’. I was too intrigued with this guy to spoil a good fight by blowing his brains out, so we continued our fight the good old fashioned way. I rushed forward punching him in the stomach and kicking him into a wall. The debris from the wall falling at his feet. By the looks on his face he was not immune to pain, neither was I. He got up even after I stroke him down the third time. Who was this guy? And why is he in such a hurry to die? We were both panting and bleeding, but still neither of us was ready to call it even. A final punch of immense power finally drove us apart. The force landed him about 5 meters away from me.

Breathless I pushed myself up against the wall, desperately trying to catch my breath again.

“Who are you?” I finally managed to ask.

**Chapter 1**

As long as I can remember, I have been “gifted” with the opportunity to see the evil lurking in this world. Seeing the darkness spreading amongst the humans is almost unbearable. While someone thinks that mankind is the worst that ever happened to this planet, this evil is undoubtedly the worst that ever happened to mankind.

This evil has caught up with me a long time ago. Chasing it and hunting it down until extinction, doesn’t make it quite friendly. They changed me, but instead of just killing me or making me one of them, they left me in my worst nightmare. Living by their rules, their laws, their nature. They forgot one thing, I would never give up. I used their strength to fight them, while they use my weakness to fight back. It’s a never ending vicious circle.

For ten years I have almost seen everything that can happen when good, evil and neutral collide. Although, I was naive enough to believe that I was the only one working at this side with this much dedication.

One night mid October, a terrible storm swept over the city. Almost all of the power was out, leaving the city only lightened by the electric storms hovering above it. The rain poured down, leaving the town soaked, dark and vulnerable. People didn’t seem to notice the danger they were in. I don’t think they ever saw me walking through the streets. My coat soaked up the water, I felt the first cold spots of rain touch my skin, knowing that within minutes, I would be drenched and cold to the bone.

That moment was the first time I felt it, a new pair of eyes watching me from the dark I so desired to hide in. A presence breaking my comfort zone. I just couldn’t place it, couldn’t figure out what it was and where it came from. It wasn’t evil, but it wasn’t the normal human ignorance either. 

It annoyed me, I felt watched and uncomfortable. While I walked around a corner, I tore a brick out of a little stone wall surrounding a small garden. When I felt the presence following me into the passageway, I threw the heavy stone towards it. As I expected, the brick was dodged as if it was thrown by a drunk.

She grinned at me. It scared me senseless, it was no warm, welcoming smile or playful smirk but a menacing grin of someone who knows she is in complete and utter control. When I encountered evil in the past, it was just a matter of survival of the fittest, kill or be killed but right now I didn’t have the faintest clue of how to respond. She came towards me, showing courage and determinacy. I was an invader in her world, and she knew it. She threw fierce punches towards me. I tried to dodge them, but I felt sluggish and out of shape.

She ran towards me with great speed and agility. She threw a punch directly on my face. I felt my nose break and I stumbled backwards trying to regain my balance. I jumped towards the strange woman and punched her back with most of my strength. She lost her footing, stumbled backwards and grinned.

“That’s no way to treat a lady” she said. I saw a small stream of blood flowing out of her lip. It broke the ice, this wasn’t a serious fight. Yes, I was a stranger on her streets, but I wasn’t the opponent she was expecting to find tonight. If she wanted to kill me, she would have used her weapon, concealed in a small pack on her thigh, covered by the black leather coat. We both hit each other with great strength. It seemed crazy that we could even stand up, but the adrenaline was high and provided us with a, seemingly endless, supply of energy.

The cuts we both endured from this sparring match was enhanced by the downpour, making it look like we were bleeding to death. Suddenly, she stopped her attack. After three vicious blows that threw me to the ground, I still could manage to get up with ease. We were a perfect match, it wasn’t worth fighting until one of us lost all their strength.

I didn’t say a word in the hope she would start the conversation. I was too intimidated by her overwhelming energy. Although the thing that worried me most, was if my coat wasn’t destroyed in this monsoon. I loved that coat, I couldn’t bear to lose it.

She saw my absence of concentration, and made use of it. Although I still was afraid that she would strike again the moment I lost my focus, she didn’t. She merely said this little line that made me wonder even more about this world. The little line that made me realize that I forgot something important, many years ago. A sentence that would face me with a strange personal problem.

She said: “who are you?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “My name is Nathalka, you seem like a stranger in these lands”

“Who I am...” I said with too much hesitation in my voice.  
How can I even begin to explain…. I thought to myself.

“Did you forget who you are?” The mysterious woman said to me. Although I didn’t even knew her name, I for some reason didn’t mind her asking questions. It felt as if she deserved to ask questions after our fight. She could be a great ally. That is, if she didn’t kill me before dawn. I tried to come up with some some form of a valid explanation.

“I never had to explain myself. This situation never came up, most of my opponents die, leaving very little room for questions.” The woman tilted her head in question, thought a while and let out a sign of understanding. “Alright, you’re special, I can accept that. Now, just start talking.” She told me, her face not offering room for negotiation.

“Why the 20 questions all of a sudden? I like to be alone, I’m quite content with myself, gives me the opportunity to disappear when needed. You must be able to relate to that, seeing as you appeared from thin air.” I felt guilty, maybe my reply was too harsh and uncalled for. 

There was a look in her eye that I have never seen before. The look that says that someone knows what you’re talking about. She’s been there. 

“I don’t know what you are, you’re not a Lycan, and you’re not one of us either. Although your strength does not seem human.” I was confused, Lycans? Us? What was she talking about? She obviously knew more about these regions and the darkness that inhabits it than I did.

“What’s a Lycan, and who is us? There are more of you?” I was surprised to learn this, I thought I was all alone, and now I found to not have found just one person who seemed to posses the same powers, or curse as I would call it, but there are more.

“My name is Nathalka, you seem like a stranger in these lands” She said as she tried to keep the conversation going. In the meantime she was checking out the places I wounded her.

“I am, I am just wandering around.” I let the information settle in for a second “Nathalka, sounds Russian.” I commented. But by the look on her face it was the wrong comment.

“That’s exactly what everybody else thinks” She replied with aggravation in her voice.

“I’m sorry” I said. I seemed to have offended her in some way. “I’ve been alone as long as I can remember, I think I have lost some of my ‘people skills’” I looked at her. Was that a smile I just saw for a second? If so it was only a split second before her face turned back into that impenetrable cold stare.

“You need to come with me” she said and her voice sounded more serious than ever before.

“I don’t know if I should. Like I said, I work best on my own”. This woman scared me. Being personal with someone meant vulnerability. I didn’t like to get people closer than an arm's length of me, this way they can’t punch you in the face when you least expect it. I certainly didn’t like the idea of following her to an unknown location where she could do who knows what to me. She had already proven her inhuman strength once, and feeling the shooting pain in my nose, I didn’t need to be reminded a second time.

“Look, it’s a frakkin’ miracle that you survived it on your own for so long” She said. “You can choose, either I kill you because you know too much, or you come with me”.

I was surprised by the dominance in her voice. She gave me no choice, so I agreed to let myself be dragged into a new world. It wouldn’t be pleasant, I hated change, let alone a change of worlds.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We need to hurry here, daylight is on it’s way

I still leaned with my back against the wall trying to get my breathing regulated again. The fight didn’t as much wear me out as it did excite me. Adrenaline rushed through my veins and it felt amazing. He was a match for me, finally after all these centuries. I saw him drift off in his own mind before he started answering my question.

“Who I am...” he said. His voice was unsteady, giving away that he was hesitating.

I blinked my eyes at him, confused by his answer.  
“Did you forget who you are?” I snapped back at him, for an immortal I was still young and I sometimes let the young impulsive part get the better of me.

“I never had to explain myself. This situation never came up, most of my opponents die, leaving very little room for questions.” He replied. The answer confused me, I didn't have any clue what he was trying to say. Fortunately, he didn’t had a clue either so I accepted it.

“Alright, you’re special, I can accept that. Now, just start talking.” I snapped at him. He clearly wasn’t a normal human being so I was going to get answers from him. One way or another. 

“Why the 20 questions all of a sudden? I like to be alone, I’m quite content with myself, gives me the opportunity to disappear when needed. You must be able to relate to that, seeing as you appeared from thin air.” He clearly got agitated by the fact that I was asking personal questions. He has clearly been alone for a long time. Why does he have the need to disappear in the dark. He’s not Lycan, nor is he a Vampire. His smell was more that of a mortal. I couldn’t help but feel drawn to him. He was strange, unique, maybe dangerous, maybe damaged.

“I don’t know what you are, you’re not a Lycan, and you’re not one of us either. Although your strength does not seem human” I said hoping to get a response from him that would lead me more to what the nature of his being might be.

“What’s a Lycan, and who is us? There’s more of you?” He replied, looking sincerely surprised. This threw me for a second, he really didn’t know.

“My name is Nathalka, you seem like a stranger in these lands” I said as I started checking my wounds seeing that most of them had already healed completely.

“I am, I am just wandering around.” he said, then pausing for a few minutes and continuing “Nathalka, sounds Russian” he continued.

“That’s exactly what everybody else thinks” I replied a little annoyed heck, I’m not even going to begin to explain that my name isn’t even from this world let alone Russian.

“I’m sorry” he apologized “I’ve been alone as long as I can remember, I think I have lost some of my ‘people skills” His comment made me laugh inside, because despite of what he might think he wasn’t really dealing with ‘people’. I snapped out of the moment. I needed to focus on business that laid ahead. I couldn’t leave him be, it was too dangerous he was obviously not one of her kind but he wasn’t Lycan either. I need to bring him back to the Mansion, he could be a powerful ally, if not we could always kill him along the way.

“You need to come with me” I said. He needed to trust me he needed to come with me to Olavinlinna so I could explain.. so he could explain..

“I don’t know if I should, like I said, I work best on my own” He said, clearly not yet willing to trust me. How could I blame him as I myself was still contemplating how to kill him if things didn’t work out. But him being part of some greater plan, I couldn’t leave him on the streets. First, because Lycans would tear him into little shreds the moment they would lay eyes on him. Lycans smell his non mortal smell from 1000 meters away. And second, because we could use him, and he could use us.

“Look, it’s a frakkin’ miracle that you survived it on your own for so long” I snapped at him. He needs to understand. But not here, not now. “You can choose, either I kill you because you know too much, or you join me”. This wasn’t an invite this was a pure thread.

The alarm of my watch bleeped, I ran up my sleeve to check it. Frak only 2 hours till daylight and I still need to get back to the Mansion. I knew there were safe houses around Helsingfors but I didn’t look forward being locked up with a complete stranger in a small, smelly ,but daylight free, container.

“Okay we need to hurry here, daylight is on it’s way” I said as I cleared my leather coat from any street dirt or blood stains that might have gotten on, cracked my neck and was ready to go.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked in a futile attempt to keep some grip over the situation.

“Our Mansion. It’s located to the north east about an hour drive from here” I answered not sure if I could trust him enough to give him the full coordinates, ever since Ördögház burned down our kind has been more and more protective over our homes.

I started walking out of the alley, I knew I had parked my car near the Tuomiokirkko. I watched as he picked himself up from the floor, clearly not yet as healed as I was. I looked at him, I was intrigued by this creature. What is he? The idea that I didn’t know what, or who he was made me feel uneasy but also very intrigued.

We took a left turn and I noticed the snow started to fall. Winter has started. I thought to myself. And it’s always a long winter up here. With only little sunlight… just the way I like it. I laughed in myself. After another block I got sight of my car, a black Ferrari Scaglietti, my favorite, it moved quick and swift through the night as all death dealers were supposed to. I opened the doors.

“Get in” I urged my stranger. Olavinlinna was still quite a drive and the sun was coming up in less than two hours. Lucky for me he did as I told him to and got into the car with me.  
I started the car and made way out of the city. As we were driving along the highway at a high speed I noticed he still hadn’t spoken to me. He had not asked me any questions on where I was from. I liked it this way, I was used to be on my own talking about myself wasn’t one of the things that I loved to do so for him being quiet was a total blessing. Perhaps he was just thinking, like I was. It was a lot of information to process all at once.

As I was thinking I noticed he was staring at me. It made me feel uncomfortable. Stop staring or I’m going to hurt you. I thought to myself. As if he could read my mind he turned his face away to stare out of the window once again. It wasn’t long until the big black gates of Olavinlinna appeared in the distance. I reached for a sensor on my dashboard, pressed it which opened the gate. I pulled the car up front of the building, I so have the best parking spot, I laughed to myself.

“We’re here” I said as I unbuckled my seatbelt. I heard him do the same and got out of the car. My stranger stood there clearly moved by the magnitude of this building. I had lived in it for centuries but it continued to impressed me still every time I came home from a night of work.  
I pushed the big oak doors open home sweet home I thought.

The reception was a big round room with two big oak wooden staircases on both sides of the room. The two staircases led up to a renaissance styled balcony which held passage to the rooms of the inhabitants of the great fortress. The rest of the reception was filled with big sofa like chairs all in crimson red color, tapestries hung from the walls and one of the walls was decorated with coats, mantels and the matching shoes beneath them. Even though we are immortal and got all the time in the world we would like to spend it otherwise than cleaning snow stained shoe prints from the floor. I remembered explaining the weird phenomenal to a newcomer once.

In the reception hall we were greeted by the lord of the Mansion himself. He was tall, about 1.90 had long grey hair soft green eyes and he wore a dark purple gown. If you looked into his eyes you could see he was old, and not just by mortal standards. He was the eldest of the Northern Vampire clan and ruler of this house.

“Terve Miika, Mittä kuuluu?” I asked in an as innocent voice as I possibly could. I knew he would be mad, the rest of my squad would have made it back 2 hours ago. I bet he was worried.

“Olen myöhässä!” Miika interrupted me in his deep and intimidating voice.

“I know, I know I’m late” I replied to him in a language also understandable to my strange guest. That and even after a long time, Finnish just wasn’t a language I was very good at.

“The rest of the dealers have returned about 2 hours ago! What took you so long!” Miika continued his rant until he noticed my guest. “And who is he?!” his voice thundered. 

“Miika calm down” I tried to sooth him. I knew the only reason he was so upset with me was because he cared deeply about me. Ever since my family died he had been there taking care of me, he was like a father figure to me and me. And his daughter being home late of course didn’t please him at all.

“I think we need a place to sit and .. talk” ….


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what this is all about, give me a god-damn reason to trust you.

I stood there, in the corner of the room, like a school child who had misbehaved. I felt left out. Left out… I have been alone for the last 10 years, and now I feel left out. This is too strange, maybe I should just leave while I still can. I couldn’t get a grasp on my thoughts, I found myself in a situation I hadn’t experienced before. 

My thoughts went berserk. What kind of language were they speaking, who is he, what’s a Miika, what’s the story between these two people. Where the frak am I?  
Nathalka was strangled in a discussion with what seemed to be her superior. A tall intimidating man stood in front of her, and he did not seem happy. I knew that she brought me to this place without permission, and now she needed to explain herself to that giant. They looked at me several times. It felt like they were gossiping behind my back. I started to feel really uncomfortable and asked myself how the hell I got caught up in this strange situation. My life was good, everything was as planned out, and nothing interfered with those plans. I just walked over the street, enjoying the depressing weather, and then this happened.

I stood in the open doorway, we hadn’t even bothered to come in completely yet. A sunray sneaked through the doorway and fell on my face. It felt warm and was sharp in my eyes. I wondered how such a little ray of light could be so strong at the beginning of dawn. Nature worked in just as mysterious ways as the well feared God.

I was lost in my thoughts for a little while. When I returned to earth, the man was standing in front of me. I was scared and intimidated. He pushed me inside into the reception hall.  
The man looked at me and reached out his hand into the sunlight to shut the door.  
I saw the pale skin, the smooth perfect texture on it. No scars, no spots of gold age, just… white skin. But then I saw that perfect baby-like skin change. It started to smolder and it burned. The red hot skin dripped of his hand like burning silk. The man hissed with anger and pain. When his mouth opened, I could see two fangs in his mouth. His tongue looked like it had a spine and a rib-cage. I looked into his eyes, I didn’t want to stare at him, but when I saw his eyes, they were turned pitch black. The life had moved out of his eyes. There wasn’t even death or blindness, there was nothing left. With a big bang he shut the door.

“NEVER, leave the door open” the man spoke with his deep voice and thick accent. I saw Nathalka laugh and if I’m not mistaking I heard her whisper “newbie” to me only to make her grin even wider.

The man then leaned forward and closed his eyes. For a moment I thought he went into meditation and I felt very uneasy being so close to him. When I was about to move and say something he said. “Who are you. What are you doing in our house” he said.

I didn’t know how to reply, Nathalka invited me to this place, it wasn’t my first choice. In fact, I didn’t quite want to be here at all and the demanding questions only made me feel more uneasy and intimidated. I was no longer just confused, I was starting to get angry as well. “I don’t know what I’m doing here or what’s going on for that matter. I was invited to your place after me and her got into a fight on the street. I am certainly not the one in need of explaining myself in this situation. Either you kill me, tell me what you want from me or let me go.”

The man smiled. His grin sent a shiver down my spine. Then he turned towards Nathalka, and spoke in that same gibberish as before. Nathalka looked at me.

“He says that I have done well. You could be very important to our kind. Come, I’ll take you to your room”

I made no attempt to move. “Please tell me what this is all about, give me a goddamn reason to trust you. That guy didn’t seem human, I’m human, it’s human to fear the unknown, and right now, I fear you” I spoke those words with too much anger in my voice. It wasn’t right, but it wasn’t right to apologize about it either. She would understand, or she wouldn’t, I couldn’t care less. I just wondered one thing.  
Why the frak, was I so intimidated by her, and why did I do everything she asked me!

She smiled at me, and said: “I’ll earn your trust when the time comes. I didn’t kill you didn’t I? Not yet at least”  
It was a vague attempt at humor, or was it? It for sure didn’t help to make me feel more at ease. I knew suddenly why I obeyed her so well, like a trained dog. I liked her. She was the first one ever to dominate me, the first one ever to have the same strength, to talk language, to see me walking. The first one that made an impression on me in a long, long time.

“Follow me please” she said. She didn’t ask, I knew she didn’t have to, she knew it too.

I walked a meter behind her, it was a great distance to see her well trained body. Her long leather coat got carried by the draft in the chill hallway. My clothes were still wet from the rain and the snow outside, going with her I was at least hoping for a dry and warm place but this place was not much warmer than the freezing cold outside. The hallway was like a cathedral, there were crosses, pictures of saints and heroes, and passages in an unknown language to me, carved into the ceiling.

The more I looked at Nathalka, the longer the hall looked. Her legs were covered in leather. It was like a spare skin covered her body. It showed her feminine features, but also the tough look of a woman you didn’t want to mess with. It was a weird sensation. She was beautiful but that didn't attract me to her. It was her strength, her dominance and self confidence. 

She then turned around to face me. I was still lost in my thoughts, staring into nothing, so when she turned, I stared at her chest, which wasn’t too subtle and polite. I raised my eyes and noticed that she had unbuttoned her coat. I could see a leather catsuit covering her entire body. She had a well trained upper body, a tight stomach, her breasts were concealed by leather. The black fabric ended up in her neck, like it needed to keep her skin safe. I could understand it if she was as vulnerable as that intimidating man. Her arms were thin, and I wondered how she could pack such a punch with those arms. I was a small little bastard, but she was something else.

“Seen enough?” she asked again with that girlish grin of hers. Her dark brown eyes staring right at me.

“Nope, but I’ll wait until you want to strip for me, don’t want to force you into something you don’t want to do” I said addressing her sense of humor I felt proud, I got a big part of my guts back.

“I have broke your nose before. I could break more of your body, perhaps something you like more than that big gob in the middle of your face” she threatened.

“I deserved that one” I said.

She smiled, and opened a door.

“Your room, it’s dark, there’s just one light, the switch is next to the door, a single bed, a sink, toilet, shower, no windows, no heating, I don’t want to hear you bitch because we don’t have anything more than you do” she said with good strength in her voice.

I walked into the room, and looked around. I felt the light switch next to the door, and flipped it.  
A small light barely lit the room enough to see where I needed to piss in. I hoped it would give enough light for me to aim too. The bed was made up with red sheets. It looked clean, I didn’t expect anything else. The whole room was clean and perfectly suitable to sleep in. Although it didn't have any heating, or windows, it still looked fairly comfortable.

“Thank you, I really mean it.” I said to Nathalka.

“I know you do, you’re not a complete asshole” she said to me. She smiled and walked away. The door fell shut behind her.

I thought by myself; Why are they so afraid of light, what can it to do them, would it burn them like that bloke, and why?.

I let my body fell on the bed. I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately. I remember having a dream about Nathalka. I never thought the first woman after living in solitary so long would have such a big impact. She was tough, strong, dominant, smart, and frakking hot….


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m afraid I got a lot of explaining to do.. “ I bit my lower lip

I walked out of our spare room I’d just given to my mysterious stranger. Walking downstairs again to meet with Miika I slammed into a young looking boy who was not watching where he was going.

“Markus! Look out where you’re going dude!’ I hissed at him as I rubbed my arm.

“I’m sorry sis, I got to go” he yelled over his shoulder. “Car please!” he yelled over his shoulder and smiled deviously as he looked at me.

“Markus I swear, If I find as much as a scratch on it, you’re dead!” I threatened him as I tossed him my car keys. We both aged enormously but we never let go of the brother versus sister fights. 

“I can’t dieeeeeee” he yelled happily as he shot into his coat.

“O, you will when I am through with you!” I yelled after him as I smiled. He was the only biological family I had left and just because of that I was crazy enough to let him drive my car.  
I turned around and I saw Miika gesturing me to come to the lounge with him. As I dropped myself into one of our comfortable chairs he tossed me a bag of plasma.

“Feed” he urged me. “I don’t want to get you hungry and decide you want to sink your little fangs into our stranger” he smiled. Miika could be intimidating but the truth was he was just an old softy at heart.

“I can control my urges” I said to Miika, not sure if he was just joking or more serious.

“I know my child” he soothed. “But he is no ordinary human. I could smell that in his blood. We need to be careful as we figure out how to proceed”

I tore a hole in my plasma filled bag with my razor sharp fang so I could drink from it.

“Just because you’re a Vampire doesn’t mean you’re a savage! We do have glasses you know” Miika said in another futile attempt to slam some manners into me. I admired his persistence, because even after 300 years he still hadn’t given up on teaching me etiquettes.

“Hate the dishes” I said between sips. I saw the old man shake his head. Knowing what he was thinking ‘She’ll never learn’. When I finished I stood up to discard my empty plastic bag. The old man raised as well.

“It’s well past sunrise, we should get some sleep” Unlike what most think, Vampires still need sleep. Not for their bodies, since they don’t get tired, but their minds work like human minds and need rest to process all the information given.

“You’re right, Good night” I hugged the old man and went upstairs to my room.

When I opened the door, my own room welcomed me. For a messy headed young Vampire the room was very sober and neat. A double bed, wardrobe and a big dark wooden desk with my laptop resting on it was all I needed.

I dumped my coat in my chair, unclipped my gun belt and threw my filthy leathers into my laundry basket. I should do some laundry one of these days. I slipped into my bathrobe and set way to my bathroom to take a much needed shower to scrub off the blood and mud leftovers. We might be cold blooded but there’s nothing more refreshing than a warm shower.  
After my shower I dried myself and got into my sleeping gown, left the bathroom and went to bed.

Around 15:00 I woke up again. The sun wasn’t down yet but I was safe inside with my curtains drawn. I got up to refresh myself and slipped into a fresh set of black leathers, as dark as the night itself. The fabric crackling as I got dressed. The suit skin tight as to not restrict my movements during a fight. I left my room and went downstairs where I ran into some of the other death dealers who were clearly debating on if and how I had died.

“I’m sorry to spoil the fun guys but I’m still here” I said in a sarcastic voice.

“We knew you’d make it back, you’re our little miracle worker” A tall male blonde Vampire named Lars said as he laughed. 

“You might know” a slender beautiful blonde named Soila started. “There are rumours of you bringing a human into our house”.

“That’s true” I said calmly “I found him on the streets last night, and human or not. He for sure is not ordinary”  
Just as I said this my stranger walked into the lounge. He was wearing a set of leathers that belonged to Markus. I could tell since they were a little oversized. He still looked good, for a human that is, with his raven black hair and piercing blue eyes. And his pale skin almost made him look like one of us.

“Morning” I greeted him “Hope you slept well, despite the cold” I smiled.

“Yeah the room is fine” he answered clearly not at ease with all the others staring at him.  
I cleared my throat hoping the others would get the hint. Fortunately they did and went about their own business.

“Sister, how was your beauty sleep? It didn’t do you any good I can see cause you’re still ugly!” He laughed at his own joke. With a bored face I introduced my younger brother.

“This is Markus my most charming little brother” I said sarcastically.

Markus smiled “And this must be our mystery man” he laughed as he shook hands with my stranger. 

“Ok smart ass go make yourself useful elsewhere“ I instructed and he started to walk away.  
“Oh and Markus…. keys please” he threw my keyset over his shoulder and, miraculous enough, I caught them.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get around the moose in time” he said with a big grin on his face.  
“Not funny!” I shouted back as he left the room.

“My brother” I explained “was turned in puberty, and he never got over it” I sighed.  
My stranger looked puzzled “Turned?” he asked

“I’m afraid I got a lot of explaining to do.. “ I bit my lower lip “And you must be starving. I’m sorry we don’t have any human food here..”. Again the same puzzled look. “Sundown is in an hour we can go to town and get you some food and talk” I suggested.

“A good idea” he agreed, clearly relieved at the prospect of acquiring some food.

An hour later we found ourselves in my, unharmed, car again and on our way to Savonlinna.  
“Don’t worry, tomorrow I’ll ask Markus to bring some food when he goes into town”  
I pulled up behind a restaurant that served all kinds of takeout food. “If it’s okay with you I will wait here. Dealing with mortals isn’t my specialty” I smiled sheepish. He was in fact the first mortal I had encountered in ages. That is if he was mortal at all.

He got out of the car and I looked for a place to park. When I got back he just walked out of the diner with a plastic bag in his hand.

“I see you succeeded. I know a great place we can sit, talk and.. you… can eat” I felt grossed out only thinking of normal food. After turning into Vampires we developed a strong reaction to any form of human food.

“Yeah, Chinese food. It’s simple, fast but always delicious” he smiled. It might have been my imagination but I could hear his stomach rumble. I took him down to the pier near the lake, I knew it was deserted in wintertime. 

I sat down and dangled my legs over the edge. The dark water below me was rushing up shore. It wasn’t cold enough to freeze yet but that wouldn’t take much longer.

My stranger sat down beside me and opened his plastic bag. The smell emanating from the bag nearly made my stomach turn over. I looked the other way and tried to deeply inhale fresh air.

“Not a fan of Chinese are you?” he asked while he started to eat.

“No, not at all” I said as I forced my face into a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had a loss for words, she did NOT just ask me to perform an operation on a living human, well… Vampire… but still!

I devoured the food like a savage who’d lived on bark for months. The grease was dripping out of the packages, and the noodles were flying around like Christmas decorations. I was starved and manners were the last thing I was worried about.

I wanted to know some truth out of my pretty companion, as it looked like I wouldn’t get rid of her for a long time.

“So” I said with my mouth full, “What’s your story, what’s your history?”

Nathalka answered abrupt like she had been practicing for this question.  
“I was born about 300 years ago in western Europe. I lived with my family. My mother, father, brother, and two younger sisters—“

“Wow, 300 years ago? You were born in the early 18th century? How the hell is that possible!”  
I shouted, I didn’t even asked, I just freaked. I’ve seen a lot in the last decade. I’ve encountered demons and beasts from which the common folk only think of them as mythical, but they were never immortal, far from it actually.

Nathalka looked at me with irritation in her eyes. “If you’d just let me finish! One night our village was attacked, that was the night I was turned… made a Vampire…”

I looked at her with disbelief. “Vampires, blood sucking freaks who live in the night and steal people from the face of the earth?” Now I was thinking of her as a mythical, made up, being. It pissed her off and I caught myself enjoying that. I was regaining some control.

Nathalka told the story with a calm voice as if talking to a child. She was expecting this kind of reaction from me.  
“You must understand we are not all monsters. Most of the covens live under a code not to harm mortals. But there are those who feel superior to mortals and see them as nothing more than food. That is what happened to my family. They bled them dry. After they were finished with the rest, they started with me and my brother but they were interrupted by members of the Western European coven. The bite didn’t kill us but it did turn us. My brother Markus made less of a transition that’s why he’s a Light Walker, he can go out in the daylight without getting his skin burned off. There are very few Light Walkers, in my coven alone there are only three, Markus, Liisa and Kristan.”

Although it seemed like she told this story dozens of times, I could still see her struggle with the old wounds. Mortals fear death, immortals would probably welcome it. I could not imagine any of this no matter how hard I tried. This wasn’t easy for her, and I didn’t make it any easier. I wondered about the covens, it meant that they were everywhere around this world. How could I be so blind and stupid not to notice! I was fighting a lost cause, I was all alone. Those covens are here for centuries, maybe millennia, and they didn’t even wipe out all the evil in this world. How on earth could I have done it on my own?

“Who was that man at the mansion? Why did he burn in the sunlight?” I asked Nathalka. A lot of my questions were answered, but even more questions had risen.

Nathalka started talking again. “When our sires were killed, my brother and me were accepted in the Western European coven which headquarters lied within Amsterdam. They fed us, gave us new names, homes, they helped us get started and used to our new lives. Miika was one of the death dealers at that time. Death Dealers are the chosen Vampires who hunt down the Lycans. It’s a sort of a license to kill, a 00 secret agent status. Lycans are werewolves, in your word. The earliest were so angry, they couldn’t change back to human form. They started slaying people and turned some of them into other Lycans. They acted purely out of rage, without instinct, without a consciousness.”

Lycans. I fought them before, the big wolf-like creatures but I never knew what they were called. A lot of pieces started to fit, the puzzle started to show its picture but there were still too many gaps to fill.

“I was trained to hunt down the Lycans” Nathalka continued. “After generations of wolves, they started to adapt themselves to the environment. The newer generations learned to control their rage and were able to turn back to human form. They were still filthy creatures who could now roam the cities in human form to strike down unsuspecting humans and feast on their flesh. Being born a mortal, I took these assaults very personal. After the Great War ended 150 years ago and most of the Lycans were killed or laid low, we started noticing activity in the Norse lands. Miika went home to defend his own land. Me and Markus went with him because where Miika went, we went. And that’s when I became the leader of his squad.”

I was completely astonished by this all. It was grand, strange, frightening. It was also very secret. None of the normal human beings could ever see any of these creatures, good nor evil.

She turned her gaze towards me, it was an intimidating gaze but still you couldn’t look away from it.

“Tell me about yourself” she said. “It sounds childish but, I told you my story, and now it’s time for you to tell yours. I need to understand who I’m dealing with”

She was right, I owed her my story, my life, those few years that I’m around and doing my thing, is nothing compared to what Nathalka had been through. I hesitated, felt ashamed to tell about my life, because it was so much less than hers. I was expendable, she wasn’t.

“As long as I can remember, I have been able to see more darkness than light. It scared me all the way through my childhood. My parents did what every other parent would do. They made it worse. I had to go in therapy, and got hospitalized. I didn’t have any clue how to handle all of it and there was nobody who could teach me. Nobody ever believes a kid’s story, they always think it’s made up, fantasy or a psychological problem. As I grew older, I started to feel stronger. All the things I could see didn’t kill me or even hurt me, so I started to lure them out, challenge them. I started to explore the dark corners of every room, the places where you think you see something move in the corner of your eyes.”

I looked at Nathalka. I was afraid for a bored look in her eyes. Why would she be genuinely interested in my life story? But against all expectations, she looked at me with pure interest. I continued my story after a couple of uncomfortable silent seconds.

“I never really spoke to my parents, when they came to visit, I’d keep my mouth shut. How could I know that those moments were the last times I had to ever talk to them. A fire broke out on a winter night. Snow was falling down so hard, that the fire trucks couldn’t reach the hospital. The standard fire extinguishers weren’t enough to put out the entire fire. My wing, in the psychiatric ward, completely burned down. I was in the middle of it. I didn’t want to die, but I wasn’t afraid for it to happen either. How ironic would it be, to be saved from darkness, by the heat and light of fire. But then, something came through the roof. It really smashed through it, grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the fire. I couldn’t see what it was, but I knew it was part of the darkness. I knew it because I felt 5 sharp long nails being buried in my shoulders, the scars are still there. The pain was too much for me to bear, so I passed out. I expected myself to wake up in a hospital, but I didn’t expect it to be empty. When I woke up, there was nothing, not even an IV or heart monitor attached to my body. My wounds were healed, so I had to be there for some time. I stumbled out of my bed, and walked through the empty hospital.”

“I know where this is heading” Nathalka said “Even now, the Lycans have underground hospitals to treat their sick and wounded, and test on normal humans.”

I was astonished. After so long, I finally knew what really happened. They didn’t bite me, they didn’t turn me, they tested me….

“So, what you’re saying, is that I’m a test subject gone haywire?”

“I fought you, you know what you are capable of but you never turned into a wolf” she explained. “I mean, it’s just an educated guess, but we know that the Lycans are trying to make their version of Light Walkers. Humans with the superhuman strength of a wolf, without losing focus due to an insatiable rage.”

The night passed and we talked about our lives, our missions and our wars. When her watch beeped again I sighed and said ‘On the run for daylight again?’

“Yeah.. let’s go” she said. “We’re in no hurry though, the mansion isn’t far”

We got up and walked towards the car and when we reached it we got in. We hadn’t driven far when I saw a dark figure in the middle of the road. Even though we were going straight for it, it did not seem to be afraid of getting ran over.

“Frak” I heard Nathalka hiss next to me. “Get down” she urged when she reached for her gun. We hit the figure at full speed after which Nathalka braked hard and got out of the car with he gun in her hand. I noticed that I was scared as hell. I liked the fear, it was a completely new rush. It was like seeing a horror movie without your parents knowing it, and with you knowing that it’ll give you nightmares for the next few nights. She got out of the car and opened fire on the dark figure in the back of our car. Somehow he had survived getting hit at full speed without so much as a skratch. With a frightening inhuman agility it dodged her bullets and drew out its own gun and fired back at her. She dodged them as well but two bullets hit her in her abdomen.

“O gods she’s hit!” my brain was frying by the overload of impulses. I needed to get us out of here and fast. The dark figure threw away its gun and roared an inhuman guttural roar.

“Lycan…” my mind made over time. I never uncounted a werewolf like this before. The Lycan charged forward and smashed into Nathalka with his beast-like strength. Nathalka flew through the air and landed 5 meters away on her back.

I charged the Lycan from behind, plunging a small dagger I always carried with me into its back. The beast roared furiously and threw me over its shoulder making me land painfully hard on my back. The wolf jumped on my with his claws stretched out, ready to bury his nails into my flesh and tear it out in chunks. In a panic, I pushed myself away with my feet, just enough for his claws to hit the pavement. The sound of the claws scratching stone made the hairs on my arm stand up. Quickly I jumped to my feet. I felt naked without anything to defend myself with. Why wasn’t I armed and ready for this? I thought. Because you usually don’t get attacked while going for Chinese food, the voice in my head answered immediately.

I threw a punch towards him, but his enormous claw easily caught my hand before it hit home. With a twist and a sickening crack I realized he broke my wrist. I couldn’t suppress a scream of agony. With my still healthy hand I smashed into the beast’s face which made him let go of my hand. I fell to the floor and instinctively I grabbed my broken wrist.

I looked at Nathalka, She was standing up, and looked at her car. She was looking at her frakking car! That stupid black machine, why was that so important! Just as I thought he would strike the finishing blow, I heard gunfire. The beast roared in pain and I saw bullets making their way through it’s forehead, bringing along bits of brain for the ride.

With a big slam it fell to the floor and in horror I watched as its feral form changed back into a human form. It still had the same gun wounds in his forehead and a bleeding nose from when I hit him. Behind the man stood Nathalka, bleeding from her nose and stomach but still very much alive. I looked up at her and saw she was having a hard time breathing. Go figure with two bullets in your gut.

“Are you okay?” She asked clearly looking concerned. “I think it’s broken” I said as I looked down at my wrist. “What took you so damn long?”

Nathalka looked angry at me. “I’ve got 2 bullets in my abdomen, and the bastard shot my car 3 times! 3 damn times! I had to kill him just for that!” Nathalka grabbed my wrist with both her hands, the pain went through my head causing a wave of nausea. I had to breathe in deep not to lose my dinner.

‘It’s broken but not out of place” She said as she moved away. She dragged herself back to the car and opened the back door. She quickly found what she was looking for and tossed me a piece of cloth. “Tie this around your neck, your arm needs rest” I did what she told me and made an improvised sling.

“Thanks for the help! What if he didn’t shoot your car?!” I yelled at her.

“Then we would have had some more fun” she answered and smiled a sly smile.

I really pissed her off this time. Although I knew that she was trained in this sort of thing, and that one Lycan would not win it from both a Vampire and me, but I had never been in this position before, and to think that this is only the beginning of something much bigger.  
She walked back to the Lycan and with great effort she picked him up and put him in the trunk of her car.

“Can’t leave a mess” she smiled a painful smile. She sat herself down on the back seat with her legs outside the car. I stood up and walked towards her as she took her coat and the top of her leathers off. Underneath she wore a black tank top and just as I began to notice how fragile her posture actually was I noticed two streams of thick blood running down her abdomen and two holes where the bullets had penetrated the skin. One just beneath her left breast and the other about 20 cm below the first one. She was sweating, probably due to the pain. It’s a frakking miracle that she hadn’t passed out by now.

She reached for a dagger she carried in her right boot. While she handed me the dagger she said: “I need you... to dig the bullets out” As if it were nothing special.   
“But I never…. I can’t just…” I had a loss for words, she did NOT just ask me to perform an operation on a living human, well… Vampire… but still!

“Look, we need to get them out before the wound heals with the bullets still inside and I would need surgery. ”I can’t do it myself now, can I. Stop being a bitch about it and get those bullets out, for my sake” she said with a lot less of power in her voice. I could hear her breathing getting more irregular as well. I took the knife from her hand and she arched her back to give me more room to work. “You just stick the knife in the wound under the bullet and just pop it out” she instructed. Just pop it out, as if I was removing lego bricks from each other.

I lowered the blade with an unsteady hand towards her stomach, still unsure if I was actually going to do this. The tip of the knife made contact with the first bullet wound and I felt a jolt go through Nathalka’s body. Just pop it out I said to myself while I pressed down the knife down into the wound. I had to twist and turn it before I felt the steel blade connect the lead lump in her body. I managed to keep the blade steady and my mind clear by focussing on deep breaths. Nathalka hissed at every turn of the blade but she still managed to keep her body perfectly still. When I felt the tip of the blade slide underneath the bullet, I pushed it upwards and out of the wound. The mess was indescribable but the bullet was out. I heard her let out a sigh of relief when she saw I had the first bullet in my hand. 

Nathalka took some deep breaths before I continued with the second bullet. The removal of the first bullet gave me enough confidence to start with the second one. I inserted the blade for the second time, searching for the other bullet, this one deeper than the previous one. It was too deep, whenever I pushed the blade upwards to pry out the bullet, it dug itself deeper above the wound. I had to insert my thumb and index finger in her wound to grab the bullet and take it out. “I got it” I said, still shocked from what I just did. Her blood was everywhere, over my hands, over the back seat and, whether I liked it or not, on my coat as well. It kind of startled me when I discovered that my first thought was ‘I hope I can get the stains out’.

Nathalka’s legs where shaking due to the blood loss and she had to struggle to stay conscious.  
“O.. okay… you need to drive back I don’t think I’m in any condition the drive” she said as I found a first aid kid and used the bandage from it to stop the bleeding of her wounds. She dragged herself further into the car so I could close the back door.

Okay driving a car... It’s been a while… but I’m sure I can still do it… even with one arm. I turned the key and the car started. I noticed the car required little driving skills since it practically drove itself. Nathalka told me the route instructions and without a lot of trouble I drove us back to Olavinlinna without other problems, or so I thought.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What the hell is going on, what happened to Nathalka, please speak to me!" I asked in a panicked voice.

When I parked the car in front of the mansion I turned around to see how Nathalka was doing. She wasn’t conscious any more and a big puddle of blood was lying on the bottom of the back seat.

Shit, I thought Vampires had these great healing skills why aren’t the wounds healed by now? I thought as I got out of the car. I opened the back door and slipped my wounded arm out of the bandage. This will hurt… I figured as much. I dragged Nathalka out of the car and carried her up the front steps of the mansion, her body hanging limp in my arms.

I pushed against the door, her blood was running over my coat. Why weren’t her wounds healing? I shouted for help when I was in the hallway. The door closed behind me, stopping the cold wind from entering the building. It wasn’t quite warm inside, not but a few degrees more than outside, the snow didn’t melt on the floor.

Five Vampires rushed towards me. Although I tried to do my best I couldn’t help thinking of them beyond ‘Vampires’. They pulled Nathalka out of my arms. The only thing that showed that I carried her inside from the car, was her dried blood on my face, hands and clothes.  
I felt uncomfortable, I was worried. I removed the bullets with a knife, what went wrong, what did I do wrong?

Miika came towards me. He did not speak to me, he just looked at me like I was the one who already killed Nathalka.

“What the hell is going on, what happened to Nathalka, please speak to me!" I asked in a panicked voice.

“You’ll know what you need to know, follow me, I cannot explain but I can show you” he said to me with his low voice and his mysterious accent. It scared the crap out of me every time I heard it.

I followed them up, up over those hard, cold steps of the long stairways. This is insane, they were carrying my only link to the truth, and that link was dying!

When we came to the end of the stairs, two of the Vampires opened two huge wooden doors. They were locked with chains, it was clearly visible that nobody could enter unless it was necessary. When opened, they carried Nathalka in and laid her down on a large table. The room was white, there were three operation tables, and instead of anesthetics, there was a wall of blood. Hundreds of bags filled with all kinds of blood. One of the Vampires got a key from Miika, and opened another door at the end of the room.  
He came back with four bags of blood.

“She needs special blood, if we give her blood from an ordinary Vampire or human, she can’t heal, at least not from the inside” Miika told me.

“Why not?” I asked confused. I did not know much about Vampires, but from movies I gathered they needed blood, human blood to sustain themselves’.

“She has been shot with UV bullets, not only her body was wounded, but also her, well, soul, as you might call it. They got to her core, she needs blood from the Vampire that bit her. Her sire as we call him” he said to me while injecting IV’s into Nathalka’s arms. Who looked more pale than I had ever seen her. “This is no weapon carried by ordinary Lycans, the footsoldiers carry anything they can get their hands on. Only the more elite have access to the more advanced weaponry, but I don’t know why they would come and get Nathalka personally.” 

“That is insane, that means that there need to be bags filled with blood from every Vampire who’d bitten someone. That’s just too much!" I replied. Once again, I got questions instead of answers.

Miika looked at me, he understood the question, he saw that I started to think in their ways.  
“Vampires possess the unique ability to regenerate any lost tissue in mere minutes, we also don’t age, even if we go without feeding, we will live for centuries in hibernation. That’s what keeps us from dying from every wound we suffer, with ultra violet bullets, you will be able to destroy that ability. Nine out of ten Vampires die after this, we can’t heal them because we don’t have the blood from their sires. Only the strongest and most important Vampires get this treatment. That’s how it’s stated in our covenant.” He said in a serious voice, his eyes shimmering with his concern.

“Does Nathalka know that she’s that important?” I asked

“She will if she wakes up” He said as he looked down sorrowful at Nathalka’s lifeless form.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Houses were burning, young women screaming.  
> I didn’t want to see this but I was unable to shake the images off.  
> Vampires were the cause of the commotion in the village.  
> Blood stained white snow and drained bodies lied around as wasted garbage.  
> Just as my parents I thought.

It was dark, cold, but my mind was burning.

A soothing voice slowly helped evaporate my horror dreamscape. Instead it made room for a bright light. I blinked my eyes rapidly at the annoying intensity of the lamp that shone right above my head and welcomed me back to this world. I blinked my eyes a few time more, the light stinging like needles in my eyes. I felt warm, no, hot, as if my skull was on fire.

“Relax, It’s okay” I heard someone say while I felt a cold cloth on my forehead soothe the pain.   
“Good morning” the voice came from next to me. When I moved my upper body I felt a stabbing pain in my stomach and I started to remember what had happened.

“You have been unconscious for eight days” the familiar strangers voice told me.   
“Try to take it easy”. My eyes were still not used to the light enough to be able to see him. “Eight days?” I asked in confusion. I knew what had happened but I didn’t realize what it meant yet.   
“Yes, eight days. But you’ve healed nicely the past couple of days” he said.   
“You should be fine soon”. 

“Is that you?” I asked, not sure if my ears were playing tricks on me since I wasn’t able to see much in the over lighted room. For all I knew I could have been kidnapped by Lycans. Which would not have been a first. The answer was the one I expected, and made me feel comfortable again.   
“Do you still remember who I am?” My stranger asked.

“What happened? Where’s Miika and where the hell am I?” I asked as my eyes got used to the light and I saw I wasn’t in my room or in any room I remembered from the Mansion. It was the first time I had some questions about my life and the only one I could ask was the stranger.

“Miika told me that you were hit by UV bullets, and that you needed blood from the Vampire that bit you to heal… you’re sire” he said as if this was something he knew about for ages.  
The words hit me like bricks when he said them. There was blood of the Vampire that bit me, in this building, that means that…

“UV bullets, that means.. I mean I have..” I tried to say but my brain was completely disorganized due to the new amount of information.  
“It means that you’re important enough to save, even when you’re hit by UV bullets, Miika will explain the rest” he assured me.

He finished my sentence and I knew that ended the conversation. I looked at my stranger, there was more peace in his face as if he knew where he was now, where he stood in life. This gave him a bright radiant aura of light  
“When can I get up?” I asked while I tried to move, but a blinding pain shot through my body.  
“Miika said you’d have to lay on the blood-IV for five more days. Get some rest” 

As he said so I felt nauseous again and I felt the darkness pull me back again. I didn’t want to go to sleep. I was afraid of the nightmares they brought. They were haunted, not my own. They were my murdering sire’s blood memories. For the first time in 300 years I was actually afraid.

Houses were burning, young women screaming.  
I didn’t want to see this but I was unable to shake the images off.  
Vampires were the cause of the commotion in the village.  
Blood stained white snow and drained bodies lied around as wasted garbage.  
Just as my parents I thought.

A white light came from behind, chasing away the darkness that had crept over the village.  
Never did the dream end like this. I heard a wolves cry, but not like the regular Lycans cry.  
A white wolf surrounded by bright white light chased away the scary and confrontational images from my dream.

It was him, it was the stranger, my pelastaja.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I tried to calm myself down, and control my hyperventilation I saw the world around me blur and I felt sick, very sick. Before I knew it I threw up and passed out.

I was summoned by Miika in the dead of the night. I haven’t been outside much the last few days, preventing me from burning up all my excess energy. I rarely slept these days. I walked through the long, abandoned hallways of the mansion. Every Vampire was out, living their undead lives.

As I walked up to the door of Miika’s office, my attention got grabbed by marking around a large M carved into the old wooden door. I was yet unfamiliar with the original language of this species and noted to myself that, if I were to spend more time with them, had to learn to at least read their text. I knocked on the big door, in contrary to most stories in which a knock echoed through the hallways in a low booming tone, it made a dull muffled thud of a sound which led me to knock again with a little more power.

“Come in” Miika said through the door.  
As I pushed, the door opened without a sound. There was no trace of old wood creaking, hinges in dire need of oil or even the sound of air being pushed away by the door.

“Close the door behind you please”.  
I closed the door. It fell into its lock, which was the only sound the door made and it was that recognizable, claustrophobia inducing, sound of your escape plan becoming unavailable.

“Take a seat, don’t stand there like an idiot”.

I sat down on a large chair and looked around the room. The room wasn’t that big. It was high. It was about 5 meters high with walls covered in text written in same language as on the door.  
There was a large red carpet on the floor, with a huge wooden desk in the middle of the room. Miika was sitting on a large chair, not quite a throne but it conveyed the impression of leadership nonetheless. Every piece of furniture, except for the chair I was sitting on, was decorated in the same, slightly disturbing, style. The sides of the desk was decorated with text in that same language I noticed before, just as Miika’s chair. The legs of the desk and chair were covered with the outlines of faces, screaming or expressing agony. I knew that Vampires had to live in darkness but I couldn’t understand why everything had to be so macabre. The room was as mysterious, grotesque and intimidating as Miika himself was.

“What are those languages?” I asked Miika.

“Spells” he said in a low voice. “You’ve probably heard it in a lot of myths, a circle of salt which demons cannot trespass, a circular room so the devil cannot hide in corners. These spells supposedly prevent other entities that live in the dark from listening in on our conversations”.

I didn’t dare to more questions. Although the man didn’t seem bothered with answering them, I was afraid to tire him out, get on his bad side.

“With Nathalka out of the running in the foreseeable future, I will take up the task of testing you” Miika said while resting his elbows on the chair’s armrests and folding his hands together. “You seem to possess a great power but we have yet to discover your weakness”.

This scared me, I was being placed on the spot to prove myself, and for what? Why?

“Don’t be scared. You’re a guest in my house, I let you in, don’t hesitate about anything” if I wanted you dead you would have been dead by now.

Those words calmed me down a little bit, but not by much. He indeed could have killed me if he so desired but that didn’t mean he couldn't have a change of heart.

“If you flinch, you die”

Miika jumped up onto the desk, and kicked me in my face. I fell backwards with my chair, and smashed against the ground. The back of my head hit the floor and the ringing in my ears had just taught me that the floor, albeit covered with carpet, was in fact made of concrete.

“You’re pathetic!” He yelled at me. “You’ll never be as strong as us!” He opened his mouth, fangs exposed as he hissed at me.

I stood up, shook my head and closed my eyes for a moment to regain my focus. When I opened my eyes, I readied my feet. Left leg forward, right leg backwards, heel up, toes firmly on the ground, relax the left leg and tighten the right. It may not be the best physical position but the years have learned me it was my most comfortable when I needed to jump into a fight.

I pushed my body forward, releasing the energy through my right leg and raising my left onto the desk. The preparation turned my mind into a whirlwind, releasing more energy and with that energy, I lunched my right arm towards Miika as a mad man, hitting him full on the temple. He flew to the left, and hit the wall. The wall crushed when his back hit it. Dust and splinters filled the room. I walked off the desk towards Miika who was lying on the ground. I Looked down upon him and raised my foot, ready to land the bottom of my boot on his face.  
At that moment, he grabbed my foot and swung me around the room. He didn’t let go, my head bashed into the various pieces of furniture that filled the room. With every hit, I felt my consciousness slip away. When Miika released his grip, I landed with my back against the door, hitting the back of my head, again. This time, not only my ears were ringing, but my vision was seriously blurred. The door, so well made and preserved through the ages, was hanging loose in its hinges.

I mustered my strength, knowing that if I didn’t give up everything I had left in me, I would not made a decent impact on the man. The illusion that I stood a chance against him in a fair fight never entered my mind, all that was important was making a proper impression, preferably on his face. I got up, ran towards Miika and punched him again. His hand came up, and grabbed my fist out of the air. His speed was enormous, I admired it. I grinned at him, and tried to hit him with my other hand. He grabbed that one too. With all the adrenaline rushing through me, I forgot that it had been broken, and heard it snap again. The pain wasn’t as much as the last time, but nonetheless, it was unpleasant.

I jumped up, placed my left foot on his chest, and smashed my right foot in his face. He let go of me, and flew backwards against the wall. Immediately I rushed towards him, but he jumped up to the wall. His hand and feet were pressed against the decorated wood, he looked like spider in the middle of its web. Before I knew it, his right foot kicked me in the shoulder, forcing me to turn around and exposing my back to him. I felt his left foot hit me in the spine causing a sharp stinging pain strike through the muscles. As if I was electrocuted, I fell to my knees and then on my chest. I was down for the count, this man could pack a punch. I didn’t want to get back up again.

“Come on you bastard! What good are you to us when you can’t even stand on your own feet! You need to learn to walk again? You need me to teach you? You need me to teach you how to ride a bike too? How to speak and write? How to love a woman? You weren’t rescued in that fire. You were left to die. The world wanted to get rid of you, and just putting you into a mental hospital wasn’t good enough. Think of it. You are still here and your parents are none the wiser. They actually do not care that their child is still alive.”

How the frak did Miika know all this! What the hell was he doing? I know what he tries to do I Thought to myself, And it’s working. Anger replaced all of my feelings, with every beat of my heart, fury got pumped through my limbs. He was right, the world proved itself good enough without me, It’s time for the world to be afraid of me. I screamed, raising myself up from the ground. I was trembling, twitching, grinding my teeth.

I ran towards Miika and started to hit and kick him like an angry kid on the playground. Miika fell down, and I saw the blood spurting out of his nose. I kicked him with my right foot like he was a ragdoll. Miika slid over the floor ending up against the desk. I jumped up, never even noticing that the force I had on the way down was due to the fact that I pushed myself away from the ceiling. I came down, left leg bend backwards, right knee bend forward, like an arrow striking his target. I smashed my right knee down, shredding half of the desk and filling the room with dust. When the dust settled, there was nothing underneath my knee other than a broken desk and a small crater in the concrete floor. “So, you do have it in you” Miika said to me all of a sudden, all calm and serene again.

“What the frak do you mean! What are you doing to me!?” I shouted at him, adrenaline still pumping through my veins.

“You can be strong, only you need to get angry first. It means you’ve got hidden strength, ready to be unlocked. It also means that Nathalka was right” He said whipping the blood of his face with a handkerchief.

I tried to calm myself down, and control my hyperventilation I saw the world around me blur and I felt sick, very sick. Before I knew it I threw up and passed out.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Giving the car a paint job was not the problem. Scrubbing your blood from the back furniture, now that was a serious task”

I opened my eyes and pretty quickly saw the world more clearly again.  
The sensation of my skull being on fire was replaced by an annoying humming pain.

I remembered my dream and I felt proud. I saved a soul, an important one, and he only thinks that I’m important. A man, bitten by a wolf, fighting for the light, living in the dark. I now understood his strange nature better. It’s unique, I must remember to look it up in the books, maybe some old passages of our bible will explain it, or maybe there’s some prophecy that brings sense into these last weeks.

I tried to sit up, apart from some pain still in my stomach I was feeling okay. I unhooked the IV that was in my arm. This can wait, I really need to stretch.

I dangled my legs off the table and tried to stand up, it felt like my legs hadn’t been used in years so I felt really unsteady at first but slowly regained my balance again. As I stumbled to the door, it swung open and Markus stood in the doorway.

“You’re up!” he said with a shock in his eyes.

“Yeah too bad for you! I’m ready to kick your ass again” I laughed at his shocked face.

He ran up to me and nearly squished me with his hug. A pain jolt went through my body

“Markus please take it easy I’m still healing” I said, not being able to be mad at his enthusiasm.

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry” he said as he let go of me and released his hug of doom.

“I’m going for a little walk” I said. “Perhaps you would like to escort me?” I smiled.

“Uh, yeah sure” he smiled silly and offered me his arm which I gratefully took to lean on.

“Old lady on the road, make way!” he shouted as we made way down the central staircase. Some death dealers looking a little surprised by seeing me up and about. Their eyes on me made me feel self conscious. 

“I’m only four years older than you!” I said.

“Yeah I know, and it makes all the difference!” he laughed. “Oh by the way, your Lycan friend did quite a number on the car…. Not to mention yourself…” he started.

“The car…". I sighed feeling a pang of emotional pain.   
The car saved my life plenty of times, the thought of it’s demolished frame made me sad.

“But… you have a handy brother” he continued as he got my coat and helped me put it on. “Come on follow me” he opened the door and my car stood in front of the mansion lid by the light of a lantern. Markus helped me down the front steps.

“Go ahead, check it out” he instructed grinning from ear to ear.

I ran my hand over the side of the car not a trace of the bullet holes.  
“How did you?....".

“Giving the car a paint job was not the problem. Scrubbing your blood from the back furniture, now that was a serious task” he opened the back door of the car. “But of course, I managed” 

“Of course, I thought you were going to die and I would inherit the car…” he smiled his youngster grin. 

“Well I’m sorry you’re going to have to wait a little longer” I said and pushed him away. “But thanks… I guess… That’s really sweet” he brought me back inside.

“Hey sis, I’m happy you didn’t die though…” he said clearly feeling uncomfortable with this display of emotion.

“I know you’d be lost without me” I teased him I smiled at him. I turned around and stumbled up the stairs again, I tripped but Markus was quick enough to catch me.

“Well all this excitement is not good for you I’m taking you back to your bed” he announced as the responsible sibling.

“Yeah I could deal with some more sleep” I said “But If you don’t mind I would like to go to my own room, sleeping on a surgical table is not really comfy I can tell you” I smiled, he was okay for a smelly little brother.

“Sure thing, sis” he dropped me off at the door to my room and he ran upstairs for the bags of blood. I opened the door to my room. I liked my room, it gave me a sense of belonging. Like an ultimate feeling of home and peace. I walked to my own massive bed and dropped myself on the soft mattress. Nothing like your own bed.

Markus walked in and placed the IV drip next to my bed. He took one of the plastic tubes and I let him press the needle in my underarm.

“I bet you always wanted to do that” I said through clenched teeth “Yeah… you just never got hurt badly enough to need IV drips like this, normally we just have to force you to drink some blood”

“Yeah this one is a bitch isn’t it? Remind me not to do this again…” I said, being happy of surviving yet another near death experience..

‘I will, now, you sleep!” he said, kissed my forehead and left my room.

This night my dreams were more at ease.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miika kissed my forehead and he went downstairs again. I knew he always had some work to do.

The next evening I woke up again feeling renewed in strength. I looked up and saw the IV above my head had ran empty. I blinked my eyes a few times to see the world more clear again. As I turned my head I noticed I wasn’t alone in my room. There was someone sitting in my room.

It was Miika. I felt uncomfortable. I hadn’t spoken to him since my stranger brought me back in after our surprise attack in the city. He brought me back. With methods only to be used on the highest in rank in our coven. Why me.

I began to sit up as Miika walked towards my bed.

“How are you feeling?” his calm familiar voice asked.

“I am well” I said “ I feel like a whole new me” I smiled at him, as I tried to lighten the mood. But then looked into his eyes they were painfully serious. It seemed there was no way for me to avoid it.

“Miika what you did…”

He hushed me “What I did, is what I had to do… You were dying and if there’s anything in my power that I can do to prevent that I will” he said, in a tone not refusing back talk. I felt emotion bubbling up inside me. Something that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I felt tears well up in my eyes.

“I’m not even pure born! You shouldn’t have done this, you know this!” What about the covenant!” I spoke in a stressed out voice. I was alive now but I was not sure what would happen if other covens heard about what had happened here.

“The covenant was never my idea and you know it! It was put in place by the Eastern European coven, the ones who value the pureness of blood over the love for their kin. I will not reign my coven this way, I will not!” Miika said and I felt the rage in his voice. He had been called a traitor before by the Eastern European Coven more than once. Miika didn’t care about pureness of bloodlines, he cared about the person carrying the blood and what contributions they made to the coven. This is why I loved him so dear. If I had brought my stranger to the doorstep of the Eastern European Coven he would be shot on sight, simply because he’s not of our kind.

“But what if they find out” I panicked. “I can’t have you in trouble over me! It’s not worth it!”.

“Don’t talk to me about worth! I know what is and is not worth it, in the past centuries I have come to understand that the way the Eastern European Coven has reigned our kind is wrong. It’s wrong to discriminate in the human world, it's wrong to do so in ours! The Eastern European Coven, look what became of their house! It lies in ruins. Half their Vampires turned rogue. And who are left to clean up their mess? We are! The covenant…” He spat, truly angry. “It was put in place by a power loving madman who valued blood in the veins more than his own people. I will not have it in my house I will not!”

What followed was a powerful silence, we both had to think about what just was said.

I knew he was right, of course he was. Miika was always right. But I couldn’t believe he broke one of our most sacred laws for me.

“You knew all along…” I started. “When you found me and Markus, and killed our family’s murderers, you bled them dry".

“Just in case I’d ever need their blood, yes I was prepared” Miika said, his voice calm again.

I needed a moment to process the new information. I knew there was many blood stored but that was by the fathers of children. Pure born children, the children born Vampire. If they were ever hit by a UV round they needed their fathers blood to recover. Only they were allowed this treatment. If Miika was true about his cause he had much MUCH more blood stored…

“I want to show you something… come on” he said.

I got out of bed and felt good again, a bit sore but that could also have been from lying in bed too long. We walked out of my room, down the long corridor and up a ladder, the same one I had came from the night before.

The big wooden doors of the room I recovered in were locked again. Only Miika carried the key. He opened the door and I recognized the room. This is where I woke up a few nights ago.  
He unlocked another door in the back of the room. He flickered on the light and what I saw there I would never forget.

There were walls FULL of blood bags hanging on hooks with name tags above them. It was sick how organized this all was. They were hung alphabetically. I saw bags for Anna, Bjorn, Daniella but also Markus had a supply and my name was there too. From my stack a few bags were missing. Probably the ones they used.

“There’s only a limited supply though, with pure borns, as long as their fathers are alive they can keep donating to their children. And in case the father is no longer around a mother can also donate. But when you use the blood of a sire, a sire that is dead, you have your limitations of course” Miika explained.

“Miika this is amazing!” I started, nothing began to explain the efforts Miika would go through to keep the members of his coven save. We walked out and he locked the rooms again.

“I can’t begin to thank you for saving my life… again” I started.  
“Well then, don’t” He said as he smiled to me. “You just do your job and be the best Death Dealer I have. And for now, go check on our stranger. I gave him a hard time last night” Miika said.

“Miika you didn’t!” I saw a small flicker of amusement in Miika’s eye.  
“Can’t an old man have a little fun every now and then?” He said as he smiled and looked as innocent as he possibly could. “ He’s powerful, he just needs rage to get into that power. You should train him. Make him learn to channel his rage and be able to use it at will”

“I will try, I will I promise” I said.

Miika kissed my forehead and he went downstairs again. I knew he always had some work to do.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I like it” I replied smiling at her. “Especially the way you pronounce it” I said. There was something about the northern accent, it sounded both sexy but also mysterious and imposing.

I woke up with Nathalka kneeling next to my bed. Her big brown orbs of eyes staring me right into mine, like a child who eagerly waits for her parents to wake up on christmas morning.  
It scared the hell out of me. She saw it, and smiled. I actually saw her smile, not just a grin, but a beautiful smile. This woman just got prettier by the minute, no matter how much wounds or scars she’d get. I noticed she was all dressed in her black leather, the same as the night I met her.

“Wakey Wakey, eggs and backey! Moon’s up, it’s a clear night, ready to go hunting?”

Wow, this was the way to wake up.

“How long have I been sleeping?” I asked Nathalka.

“Two days. We patched you up, just be careful with that hand of yours, it’s still fragile, It’s that mortal blood of yours" she replied. “I don’t understand how you lived for so long, the healing process of your body is agonizingly slow”.

“What did Miika say?” I asked, remembering our unpleasant encounter two nights ago.

“He’s proud of you. There is work to be done, training to be had, but he thinks you can actually be of use to us” she replied as she straightened herself.

Her words just comforted me, I smiled and got out of my bed. Right then, I noticed that I wasn’t wearing any clothes. They probably just dumped me in bed to heal, without bothering to put on some pajamas or something.

“Well, do you want to go in that birthday suit, or should we get you some clothes?” Nathalka said without looking away. She wasn’t embarrassed, she wasn’t turned on, she didn’t even look down uncomfortably. 

“I think I’ll get some clothes…” I said. I felt my head explode of shame, misplaced shame, as Nathalka didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all. Mankind had turned the body into a shameful and distasteful sexual object. You were either judged or loved by the way you looked, but not in the eyes of Nathalka. Maybe age had taught her to know better, maybe it was her intelligence and rational thinking. Maybe, it was just the way she looked at people. 

I walked over to a pile of clothes in the corner of my room. These did not seem the same clothes I had worn earlier. They were of the same black leather fabric Nathalka wore. I never thought of leather as practical, but the good, proper, authentic leathers were surprisingly comfortable and easy to manoeuvre in. They gave me a cotton undershirt to stay warm, a chestpiece that fit perfectly around my waist, it had sleeves that stretched perfectly to my shape, accentuating the outlines of my muscles. I didn’t have an impressive build, but these clothes certainly gave me a slight ego boost. The pants were less tight, you don’t want to rip out of them mid-battle, and the boots were just perfect. They were about forty centimeters long and buckled up at three different places. Most importantly, my own coat hung cleaned on a hook next to the pile.

“Nice….” I smiled.

A few minutes later I was geared up as well and we walked out of the mansion.We both got into the car. Nathalka handled the machine with such care, she really loved it.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “What’s scheduled to die tonight?”

“We’ve heard about some rogue Vampires. It means that tonight, we may have to slay our own kind” she said while never taking her eyes off the road.

“What does that mean?” I wondered. Again, more questions! “Well, we try to get rid of the stereotype Vampire, the bloodsucking, killing, kidnapping monsters. We’ve got someone to wipe them out, but sometimes he needs some help. Tonight my friend, you’re going to see real darkness, pure, chosen, evil".

“Never a dull day… well… night with you!”

I got excited, I started to enjoy this lifestyle.

“But first, we’ve got to give you a name” she said as she bit her lip exposing her fang.

Nathalka was right, I couldn’t go through life unnamed anymore. I often wondered why I didn’t recall my name. Nine years were long enough to remember it, but why couldn’t I?

“Well in my coven it’s accustomed to be named by your sire. The one who turned you gives you a name that fits within the coven. Since my sire was a murdering bastard and was killed on sight, he didn’t get the honor of naming me. Miika did. So although I didn’t really turn you, you’re not really our kind, I did let you into our coven. So then, it would be suitable that I find you a name” Nathalka said, still heavily thinking judging from the frowns on her face.

“Well okay, what do you have in mind? Do you have anything in mind at all?” I asked her.

“When I was in my coma from the UV bullets, I experienced blood-memories from my sire. When Vampires drink blood, they are linked with the thoughts and memories of the host. The transfusion did not only provide me of new life, but also with many horrendous memories. Those memories of ancient myths, prophesies and legends mixed with my own dreams. I dreamt of a white wolf, not a Lycan but also not a wolf like you know them. It scared away my darkness and I woke up finding you next to my bed. You are the white wolf from my dreams. So I figure your name should be Bardulf which in our ancient language means white wolf. Which is, what you are” she said quickly looking me in the eye to measure my reaction then quickly looking back at the road ahead of us.

I let the thought linger my mind for a few minutes. Bardulf, these were not the names I was used to at all. Now, I mustn’t forget that Nathalka was many centuries older than I was, she could read and write the native Vampire languages, unlike me, so the name would sound more natural in her own ears. Nathalka seemed young, not over 30 in human years, but when she spoke or when I looked into her eyes I noticed I didn’t come close to her age.

“So what do you think?” she asked interrupting my strain of thought.

“I like it” I replied smiling at her. “Especially the way you pronounce it” I said. There was something about the northern accent, it sounded both sexy but also mysterious and imposing.

“Thanks!” Nathalka laughed. “If you stick around long enough, you’ll get the same accent. I wasn’t born here, so I wasn’t born knowing the language and the accent” she said as she drove us into a small village.

She parked the car next to an old church. I looked at her in question.

“What?” she said “ The crucifix thing is just a myth. There are actually members of our coven who are religious ” she said as she put the parking brake on. “Ok let’s go, we’re meeting Kristan here, he’s the guy who usually takes care of the rogue Vampires and gives us a heads up when they’re getting out of control again”.

I was amazed by how organized things were. After hundreds of years you would think one get bored at doing their jobs but they stuck to it. All of them, the Vampires in the mansion, all had their own job and dedicated their time and effort to that one task. That must be the only way for them to have survived over all these centuries. I thought to myself.

We entered the church. It was warmer than outside, but not quite comfortable. For some reason it felt weird walking into a church in full body armor. The church was also covered with spells in that ancient language. The interior was mostly intact, the only seats available were wooden benches and a few chairs next to the altar. There was a man, dressed in a long white robe. He had pitch black hair that fell over his shoulders. His eyes were bright blue and his skin was pale. He was working at the altar, preparing weapons.

“Terve Nathalka!” he said as he leaned in to hug Nathalka. Then he turned to me.

“Howdy!” The man said, he was a freaking cowboy. “I’m Kristan, who are you?”.

“My name is…” I forgot already. “What’s it again Nathalka?”.

“Bardulf” she said.

“Ah, the white wolf!” Kristan said. The man walked up to the left of the room towards a wall covered with books. At a glance, it looked like bibles, encyclopedias, dictionaries and various text books of which I had never thought existed. He pulled a big red book of the shelf. It was so old, the cover started to fall apart. Threads of red fiber and paper were falling out of it when the man carried it towards the altar. “This book speaks about you, is this a coincidence, Nathalka?”

“Can’t say, It came to me in a fever dream mixed with blood memories. He is bitten by a wolf, at least, we presume, but he doesn’t turn. Not at full moon, not when angry, never. Bardulf processes great strength but only when agitated, Miika says he has rarely seen anything like it. All their strengths, but none of their weakness so far”.

“And who are you, Kristan? I know you are a Light Walker” I asked him.

“Ah, you remembered, Bardulf” Nathalka said to me. I think it was a compliment, at least that’s how I interpreted it, as it made me feel a bit better about myself.

Kristan looked at me and said: “Yes, but Light Walkers are different than whatever you may be. We get turned by a Vampire and sometimes, very rarely, the Vampire virus mixes perfectly when the human genes. The genome is extended, improved, instead of altered. But you, you may be different. A Light Walker variant of the Lycans is a Full Wolf. It can exist only in wolf form, acts out of pure rage and is twice as big and strong as the normal Lycans, you are clearly not one of them". He opened the big book, and searched through the pages.

“This passage says it all; ‘We shall not fear the light nor dark. We shall not fight alone in a battle lost, for one made of dark shall walk through fire and bring light back to us. Though darkness nor light shall cease to be, for one needs other to exist.’ You see? We never took this too literally, because it’s just ancient text scribbled by an unknown person, but like every other prophecy, if you predict a lot of events, there is bound to be one that actually happens. Like monkeys on typewriters. Maybe, this one is actually true”.

I was astonished. I accepted the fact that I was special, but I can’t believe my role would be this big. As Kristan said, it might be just a scribble, but if it’s actually correct, then there is a whole lot of responsibility on my shoulders. I haven’t had to deal with any responsibility for the last ten years, and I didn’t make me feel comfortable to start with it now.

“Do the wolves already have a, well, Dark Vampire? If we go by that text, there needs to be an opposite force to the White Wolf, light versus dark” I asked, for If I were to be their light, there was someone in the Lycan clan to be their darkness.

Kristan smiled to me. “No they have not, but there are many Vampires who aid the wolves in finding this one person. These Vampires will bite and kill any human being who can potentially be a Dark one. They tried to turn me, hoping that I would fall to the dark, and become the Harbinger of Darkness. The Kamenwati. The Dark Rebel. Fortunately, I fell into the light, and served this coven".

“You must be a wonderful aid to them" I said. “What do you do?”

Nathalka walked towards the altar. “He does what we need to do tonight, slay the Vampires that have gone rogue. Show him the weapons, Kristan“.

“Alright, my favorite part! Forget the crucifix bullshit, it doesn’t work. Crosses are formed everywhere, if we’d be allergic to them, we should burn when we came to an intersection or when we saw two tree branches growing over each other". Kristan explained, it all made sense. I was surprised with how tainted my view of their kind was by what I had learned from folklore, legends and myths. If you start thinking about it, there’s little that can do real damage to either a Vampire or Lycan. Because if there were so many ways of killing them, their species wouldn’t have survived over the centuries.

“You know that we can heal really fast. But in order for our bodies to restore themselves we need new blood. Bleeding dry is what can kill us just as much as any other human. Other way to end a Vampire's life is a stake through the heart. But to be honest, almost everything dies to a stake to the heart, puppies, spiders. Other weaknesses are; Garlic, which is not lethal but it will slow us down, it’s nasty stuff burns the eyes and nose.” I saw a shiver go through Kristan and Nathalka.

“UV as you already know…” He stopped talking for a second and looked at Nathalka. She looked away from his eyes and looked at the ground. He must know what happened.  
“When UV hits our skin we burn. Our skin is very thin and fragile, sunlight will cause it to burn, like an extreme form of skin cancer" he said. I was intrigued with this all. I realized Vampires are not dead. They have a beating heart, a functioning brain and organs in dire need of nutrition. They may be, in fact, very much alive.

“Lycans have the same thing, only they do not have the high senses we have. They are more based on brutal strength. Silver nitrate always does the job, although no one really found out why. It seems like a very strong allergic reaction they have, like anaphylactic shock which also prevents them from making the change from human form to Lycan. A strong enough shock can shut down the entire body".

Kristan walked over to the back of the church and pulled away a curtain. “As for weapons. I give you the Desert Eagle modded with silver nitrate bullets. Bullets are made from glass and have a small explosive in them. You need to detonate the bullets when they penetrate the target. If we make the bullets crash on impact, they would be destroyed upon firing. The gun has a knockback that will kick your teeth out or break your shoulder, it’s as heavy as brick, but it looks damn cool. We’ve got grenades with special little nasty spikes on them. The first batch were a bit difficult to throw, due to said spikes, but these will pop out 2 seconds after you pulled out the pin. So, remember not to cook this grenade in your hand, for obvious reasons.

We then have silver knifes, pretty self-explanatory. A vest that’s resistant to UV, although for a short amount of time, but you won’t be needing that. We’ve also got a James Bond watch, with a GPS system build in. This way, we know where you are in case you need any backup, or get killed and we can’t find your body. It’ll blow up when you do not enter the code before taking it off your wrist. This way, when someone tries to pull it off of you to prevent us from finding you, we can still find your remains by heading towards the little mushroom cloud". Kristan laughed as he pressed the weapons into my hands. I had been training the past week, but I was far from fluid with weaponry. Yet I was dying to give it a try. I smiled a satisfied smile, as a child who got his new transformers action figure.

“Makes me feel comfortable. You’ve got any special items for me?” I asked him.

“Of course!” Kristian said. “Your very own Colt.44, Silver plated, adjusted to work with UV and normal rounds. I think that the cumbersome Desert Eagle will make you hit anything but your target.”

“Thank you very much, I missed him! It’s still my original one, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yup, all yours, partner!” He replied with his American accent. “Just be sure you don’t aim for her” he said and laughed.

“I’m pretty sure he’s seen his doses of UV wounds this last week” Nathalka smiled uncomfortably. “At least, I hope”.

“Well if we’re all good than let’s go, we’ve got a battle to fight’ Kristan said.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stabbing pain ripped through my head and I was blinded by it. I tried to pour all my energy into letting go of Bardulf’s leg but I was no longer in control. It was as if my hands were melting into his flesh. I started to gasp as if my breath was being sucked out of my lungs. My body started having seizures and the blood poured more and more from my nose and my ears. Bardulf’s face looked as if he wasn’t here and now in this moment. He stared blankly into nothing, his eyes turned bright like there was only white left.

Snow fell on rooftops as we moved swiftly through the moon lit alleys. I longed for these moments. As a highly skilled predator, I scouted the streets that led to the old wood factory, according to Kristan, the lair of the rogue Vampires. If there was anything I hated more than a Lycan it was a rogue Vampire.

They are my own kind but they made a willing choice for their murderous lifestyle. They think they are better than humans, better than other Vampires who live under the covenant. They wished to rule the earth and take humans as their slaves as we did many centuries ago. They are a threat to all of us immortals. they attack humans and make them notice our presence. The only reason we survived over the centuries, is by not drawing too much attention to our existence, by staying in the shadows. Our coven was in jeopardy if these rogues went out and feasted on humans.

Kristan gave us the all clear sign and we stalked up to the old factory. I found a fire staircase. I jumped 3 floors up to the top of the ladder where I waited for Bardulf to climb up. The plan was that Bardulf and I would attack them from the upper floors as Kristan would scout the ground floors. We had the element of surprise but I noticed we were highly outnumbered, as I laid eyes on the group of rogues debating their plan issues on the ground floor below us. We climbed in through a broken window and I looked at my companion Bardulf. I was glad he was now also carrying a gun, and was not as helpless as last time we were attacked. Just by thinking of that attack, the scars on my abdomen started to burn. Quickly I shook the memory and focused on the task ahead.

I climbed over the railing of the balcony, Bardulf did the same across the room. I nodded at him and we both jumped down. Soundless we hit the floor, quickly hiding behind old logs of wood. This way we had cut of the rogue’s escape routes. Quickly I loaded my handguns with ammo clips. These guys needed to go and fast! I spun around the log which hid me from the sight of the rogue Vampires.

I stalked up two of the group members from behind and snapped their necks. Just when the other members began to notice, Bardulf did the same for the two across the room. I grabbed my guns from my belt and opened fire on the remaining Vampires. The leader of the pack started yelling orders to their gunmen. Bullets were flying all around us but I quickly hid behind an old sawmill workbench. It was at times hard for me to focus with Bardulf out there, I knew Miika trusted his strength but I still had the idea I had to look after him.

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I noticed Nathalka on the other side of the room. It was badly lit so I had to focus hard. Focusing myself took away a lot of my speed. I had to blink a few times before my eyes were used at the dark, but those moments could be the precious time we needed to keep our advantage on the enemy. I saw that Nathalka broke the necks of two group members. Two members in front of me looked in shock at her direction. They had noticed her, I had to act fast, these were those moments where we had to keep going, stay one step ahead of them, so I run up towards the two guards and replicated Nathalka’s moves. It was the first time I killed a humanoid. Their spines snapped in my hands and I was surprised about how fragile they were. Nathalka grabbed her guns and started to fire directly into the crowd. I grabbed my Colt and aimed. I emptied my clip and managed to kill 7 with the 9 bullets I had. I was out of shape.

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I swung from behind the workbench and opened fire again. I hit 2 rogues in the chest. They crawled away in pain only to be met by Kristan who ended their miserable little lives. Bardulf was also still standing, he was now hand fighting two rogues and I saw that his training did him good. He had talent for the business. This took my eyes of my enemies for a second which allowed them to put a bullet in my shoulder. I gasped in pain and quickly removed the bullet by prying it out with my thumb and index finger. I was okay but that bastard had to go.

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Kristan finished off two of the rogues shot by Nathalka. I started to smile, they worked together like a well oiled machine. As if they could speak to each other without actually saying anything. And both their eyes glowed in that unnatural blue color. Although I was caught in a melee with two other Vampires, I couldn’t help noticing the fine cleavage of the vamp-fatale I was about to slay. I smiled and stabbed a stake through her heart. I pulled the stake out of the incinerating corpse and smashed it into the head of the Vampire behind me. I felt his brain matter drip into my neck. My coat…

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I stormed towards the guy that managed to put a bullet in my shoulder and jumped him like an angry lion. With the knife from my boot I sliced his throat and the Vampire in me was slightly tempted drinking the dark crimson liquid that squirted out of the wound onto my face. We had plasma and the cloned blood, but nothing was quite like the original. Quickly I shook that thought. Bardulf was on the floor being mounted by two rogues. I ran towards them and took one of them out by shooting him in the head and Bardulf quickly got rid of the second one. 

“You okay?” I asked him

“More than okay, I live for this” he said smiling and putting a couple of bullets into another rogue agent without taking his eyes off of me.

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Blood had splattered on my face. It felt warm and cold at the same time. I needed to be careful, a few drops of their blood into my mouth could be lethal to me. I still was a human with the Lycan virus.

Nathalka looked at me and said: “You okay?”

“More than okay, I live for this” I said smiling. I looked at Nathalka, her glowing eyes, her figure, her legs covered in the black leather of her suit. She moved so elegantly during these fights, it was art. I heard a snoring behind me so I raised my arm, pointed my gun over my shoulder and shot 3 times. I wanted to shoot 4 times, but I heard a click. Empty. I still looked at Nathalka.

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“Alright then” I said and buried my knife into the throat of another rogue before blowing his brains out. Such a pretty night for a bloodbath. I moved out from behind a pile of wooden logs and opened fire on the last two rogue Vampires. It sure felt good releasing some tension and adrenaline. I had been resting for way too long.

All of a sudden I heard Bardulf scream out in pain from the other end of the room.  
Quickly I made my way around the room finding him on the floor with blood on his leg. He took a bullet to the leg.

“Ouch, couldn’t jump away in time?” I asked him teasing him a little. A leg wound is more annoying than lethal, even to a human.

“Nice, really nice, I’m in agony here and you’re making fun” he said through clenched teeth.

“Oh only just a little” I grinned.

“All secure” I heard Kristan say behind me. “What happened to you? Let one of the bastards get to you partner?”

“It’s just a leg wound, let me bandage it so we can move out and get you patched up” I ripped a piece of cloth from one of the rogue Vampires clothes and Bardulf stretched his leg so I could wrap the cloth around it so the bleeding would stop.

I grabbed his leg with both of my hands and a strange kind of electric current went through my body. Tiny little needles stung my skin and I felt a wave of nausea hit me heavily. A tremor in my arms made them not respond to my will any longer. Then I tasted blood, my nose started to bleed. What’s going on! As if taken by electricity I couldn’t let go of Bardulf’s leg. The tremor in my arms got worse, I tried to speak but I couldn’t. A searing pain started to grow in my brain. 

“Nathalka let him go…” Kristan said getting a hunch something was wrong.   
“Let him go Nathalka…".

A stabbing pain ripped through my head and I was blinded by it. I tried to pour all my energy into letting go of Bardulf’s leg but I was no longer in control. It was as if my hands were melting into his flesh. I started to gasp as if my breath was being sucked out of my lungs.  
My body started having seizures and the blood poured more and more from my nose and my ears.

Bardulf’s face looked as if he wasn’t here and now in this moment. He stared blankly into nothing, his eyes turned bright like there was only white left.

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Nathalka grabbed my leg. It was bleeding badly. I’ve never been so scared and excited at the same time as the adrenaline of the fight still rushed through my blood.

As soon as her fingers closed around the wound, I felt aroused. My sight got better, I could clearly see in the dark as in the light. I smelled the faint fragrance of death and fire, smells I never noticed before. My wound itched like crazy! I looked at it and saw the bleeding had stopped. I looked at Nathalka.

It was like she got electrocuted, her face got whiter than usual. I saw her pupils grow larger, the blue glow had vanished completely, her eyes were dim, and her skin started to crack. The blood spurted out of her nose. Kristan was yelling, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying, there was too much noise. I looked at my wound and saw that it closed completely. What the hell was going on!

I felt a strange force take control over my body, hormonal like a teenager on prom night, angry like wolf that lost its prey. The smell of blood drowned out all common sense and control, the lust for more blood took over. I fought against the power, screamed inside my head. It was like I was trapped in the back of my skull, looking out my eyes as if they were binoculars turned the wrong side round. My body was no longer under my command, it felt like I was back in the burning asylum, with the strange claws buried in my shoulders, ready to lift me up out of my old life.

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“S.. stop it.. Bardulf.. please…” I managed to say fighting to stay conscious as my old scars from the two bullet wounds started to bleed as well. I managed to look down at his leg, the bullet wound completely healed. My head was ready to explode as I felt two hands on my shoulders grabbing me from behind and pulling me away.

With a thud I landed on my back and after a few more violent spasms I regained control over my body. The stinging in my veins and shaking stopped. I coughed heavily, my lungs screaming as I tried to catch my breath.

I stayed on my back on the floor trying to regain control of my bodily functions. With a shaking hand I wiped the blood from my nose. Every part of my body seemed to hurt. Kristan was with me in no time and checked me over. I lifted my leather top to check on my scars who were no scars anymore but looked more like freshly inflicted wounds, a puddle of blood pooling under my body.

“Stay down” Kristan instructed me as he went to get his medkit. 

“What happened” I heard Bardulf ask in a weak voice as he sat up. I tried to answer him but I was still fighting hard to stay conscious. 

Kristan returned and I heard him dump his bag next to my body. I heard its zipper and saw Kristan grab a bag of plasma from the bag. He ripped the corner of the bag with his fang and drew his arm underneath my head to help me drink. 

I took the nutrition gratefully. I drank deeply and felt my strength returning to my body. 

“Nathalka are you alright?” Kristan asked, his concern stained his accent. He started checking my wounds again which now had stopped bleeding.

“I think so” I answered as I emptied the bag of plasma. “I don’t feel too well, my head hurts like hell and I feel like all my energy has been drained”

“Well he did, drain you of energy, that is” Kristan said. “I don’t know how, but he has other powers than the ones we know. He can take your healing skill and make it his own. When you touched him, the wound on his leg completely healed. But it took from you. You started bleeding from wounds that are already healed”.

“What? I didn’t I mean, I didn’t want to." Bardulf started as he got up. His leg clearly healed.  
“I’m so sorry, is she going to be alright?” He said as I saw him inspecting me, clearly disturbed by the amount of blood on the floor. “Really I had no idea I was hurting you. It was as if it wasn’t me in my body! I would never want to hurt you!”.

“It’s okay Bardulf” I said. “I will be okay, see the bleeding already stopped. Now only for that excruciating headache to go away…” I slowly got up on my unsteady legs. Right now all I wanted was some rest. It felt like I had fought an entire Lycan army and haven’t slept in years. I saw the horrified look on Bardulfs face and felt sorry for him.

“Hey, don’t worry, I can take a knock. But we should find out a way for you to channel this power, because I do believe it can be very lethal. If Kristan wasn’t there to pull me back..”  
I did not even want to finish that sentence.

Kristan set a napalm bomb in the old factory, getting rid of any remains of the rogue Vampires and completely incinerating the plant We walked out together back to my car and out of this deserted town. We drove Kristan to town, well we… I let Bardulf drive he did a good job before so I trusted him with my car, and dropped Kristan at the church.

“You’ll be okay?” he asked me as we hugged goodbye.

“I will be fine really! I just want to sleep and don’t wake up for a century or two” I smiled at him. “I contact you soon”.

“Bye Bardulf, it was great working with you partner". He said and he shook Bardulf’s hand.

“Yeah me to” Bardulf said a little absent minded.

“Come one Bardulf, drive me back to my little bed” I said as I got into the car.

Together we drove back to Olavinlinna and after checking he was truly alright all I wanted was getting into my bed and sleep a long…. long time.

I will get back to him... next week its the formal reception because the ambassadors of the Western European Coven come over. Let’s see how he likes that. I grinned as I fell into a very deep sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So there was someone, tell me, what happened?” I asked not even sure If I wanted to know but I had a feeling this was important.

I woke up one afternoon and I felt totally fit. My leg had healed completely after my encounter with Nathalka a few nights ago. I wasn’t sure what had happened. It was as if my body became a massive sponge which drained her life’s energy so my body could feed on it.  
It was dangerous I felt it there and then. It was parasitic, I wanted it gone. Something else took control over my mind and body, something that scared me. 

I got out of bed and went into my private bathroom. I was amazed of how luxurious the Vampires actually lived. Everyone had their own bedroom, bathroom, office, you name it. Everyone had their own living quarters completely designed to their own liking. If only they had central heating... 

Still, beats the crap out of sleeping under a bridge. I reminded myself. I had spent many a night hiding from the rain under bridges. It’s not that I hated the rain, I just hated the subzero temperatures that turned my body into an icicle afterwards.

I was just getting ready to get into a fresh set of leathers when I heard a knock on the door. I grabbed a towel and said “Come in”. My jaw fell to the floor as Markus walked in carrying a three piece suit.

“Here’s your suit” Markus said, cheerful as always. “Nathalka asked me to pick something up for you.I figured this must be about the right size” he said as he hung the suit next to my bathroom mirror.

“Uh, a suit? What for? Is it.. ‘let’s all wear suits’ day?” I asked. The, in my ears obvious, sarcasm didn’t come over. I suck at sarcasm, I thought. I’ll never stop trying though.   
Reality was that I really had no clue what the suit was for.

“Not really. Today, ambassadors of the Western European Coven will arrive for a meeting with the coven’s eldest. Miika expects us all to bbehave on our best" Markus said as he also placed a tray of food on my desk.

“I’m sure Nathalka will explain the rest. We expect you downstairs at eight, okay?” He left my room and I just sat on my bed flabbergasted.

If there was anything I hated more than blood on my coat it was formal cocktail parties. I didn’t know anyone yet in the house apart from Nathalka and her brother. And of course there was always Miika who still scared the crap out of me. The prospect of this night sent a shiver down my spine. My new life had social commitments, interaction with other people. I hate other people, or in this case, Vampires.

I checked my watch. It was five past seven P.M. I still had about an hour to get ready. Quickly I ate my food. It was nothing special, some toast and coffee, but I was already happy they took care of me in that way. They didn’t have to since the food was for me only.

I got dressed into my tux and it fitted me perfectly. As I put on my tie I thought to myself. Well let’s just make the best out of this. At eight P.M. exactly, I closed the door to my room and walked towards the great staircase.

It was unlike anything I had ever seen. People were dressed up in their finest outfits and everyone seemed to have a great time. I walked down the stairs, feeling quite comfortable in my tux. That Markus does a good job on buying clothes for me. First the leathers, now a suit. I mustn’t forget to thank him. I thought, but I’d probably forget anyhow. 

When I walked into the big lounge there were Vampires sitting, drinking. I didn’t for a second consider they were not drinking red wine... I was too amazed at the sight in front of me. Most of them smiled at me as I walked into the lounge. Either I am earning their respect, or they don’t know yet that I am not one of them. I said to myself, and to be really honest, I felt more comfortable around them as well. That could have to do with the fact I got more accustomed to their ways, their lives and their weaknesses. Last week I slayed several of their kind which in a weird way made me feel comfortable around members of the coven. I felt like I started to earn my position, my privileges. When I scouted the room I noticed there were plenty of same sex couples, something you might not see at a regular cocktail party. When having an eternity to live, why bother with prejudice and ignorance. I thought. It made absolute sense to me. Humans fight, hate and judge each other in the name of religion, and a Vampire was neither human nor religious.

Across the room, Miika was seated in a big chair, no it was more like a throne. Next to him was a man with long black hair, he wore a long robe and looked important. Must be the ruler of the Western European Coven. Miika gave me a friendly nod and I smiled back. I didn’t get that guy. He scared me but still I knew he harbored no ill will.

I looked around, trying to find Nathalka anywhere in the room. So far no sight of her. I got tapped on the shoulder, it was Markus standing behind me giddy as always.

“Hey Bardulf, it is okay I call you that, is it?” He asked.

“Hey Markus, yeah of course, that’s where a name is for” I laughed and shook Markus’ hand   
“I want to thank you Markus, the tux fits and looks great” I didn’t forgot to thank him!

“No problem, I have an eye for such things, and to make you feel even more comfortable…” He handed me a beer. An actual beer! “I know you are probably not too fond of the red stuff…”  
“Cheers man” I said. Markus was a character I could really grow fond of. He’s the spontaneous type of guy who has his heart on his tongue. I felt like I knew where I stood with him.

I looked around the ballroom. It was huge, covered with red carpets and banners. There were crosses and candles hanging from the walls, and large oil paintings with scribbles on them that I could not read. The room was well lit even though there were no electrical light sources. There were many, many women. A lot of them were looking at me. I noticed some were trying to flirt with me. That was first, and it was damn uncomfortable. I swallowed, two women giggled at each other, knowing what they loosened in me. This was so not my cup of tea, but I was enjoying it nonetheless.

“Markus… Markus!” Liisa called him from across the room, waving her hand frantically. “If you’ll excuse me, ladies call” he said with a grin as he disappeared into the crowed.

I took a sip of my beer, the cold flavor did me great, I couldn’t remember how long it had been I had actually drunk anything other than plain water. I looked around to see if there was any sign of Nathalka since I was getting worried. After what happened, I still wasn’t sure if I didn’t harm her in a more severe way. But when I turned around to face the door she just walked in. She looked absolutely breathtaking and very lady like, which wasn’t really her style, I figured.

She wore a long crimson red skirt with a black corset. She had tied her hair together in a knot and wore a very expensive looking necklace. Her lips were the same colour of crimson as her drink. It was romantic and morbid at the same time. This was a total other side of of her. If I wasn’t looking out for myself my jaw would have dropped.

“Hey” she said plainly as she walked towards me.

“You... well… you... eh... you… look great” I said trying not to stare, yet her appearance was distracting.

“Thanks, you clean up nicely as well” she replied with a grin.   
“I see they took care of you” as she pointed at my beer.

“Markus, great guy. Takes good care of me” I replied as I smiled at her.

“Yeah, If he wouldn’t, I would kick his ass” she said.

“In that dress? I’d buy a ticket to see that” 

“I’m sure you would” she laughed, she had a beautiful laugh.

We walked around the lounge and Nathalka introduced me to a lot of new faces. Though I wasn’t good with names, I did give me an idea of who lived here at the mansion and who did what within the great fortress. Weird enough all of them responded kindly to my presence, even if they knew I was different.

“So these kind of get togethers aren’t strange to you?” I asked Nathalka

“No, we meet with council members of other covens all the time. We are separate covens, but we are one species. Even though we have our differences, we wouldn't be able to survive this long if we did not work together from time to time” she explained.  
“Plus, it’s a good excuse to have a party and ‘feed without need’ as we call it” she laughed as she took a sip of her expensive looking diamond glass.

The night went by with ease and I had social fun for the first time in many years. Perhaps it was because I didn’t feel as weird or left out as I used to feel in regular society. I wasn’t part of their coven as they all were linked by their blood bond but it did feel good. At the end of the evening Nathalka came to find me.

“I’m going out on the balcony, it’s kind of warm in here” she said as her face actually looked little less pale than its usual shade of white. “Want to come?”  
“Yeah sure” I replied as I got off my chair and followed her upstairs. She opened the big doors that led to the moonlit balcony. The night air was cool and dry. It was freezing outside, but Nathalka didn’t bother putting on something warm to cover her body. The cold soothed her skin. She sat herself down on a bench and inhaled deeply.

“I love the night air, especially here in the north, it is nothing compared to where I came from” She said as I walked towards the bench to sit down as well. “I’m usually not a fan of social gatherings, but this was quite fun” I confessed. I met a lot of new people, people who didn’t pose a threat to me. People I could actually like.

“Me neither, I only do it to keep Miika happy. He really wants me by his side on evenings like this. And I wouldn’t do anything that would let him down" she said and smiled. She cared so deeply for the old man. Go figure, she owed him her life many times.

“Many couples as well, is single life a crime in the covens?” I said as a joke.

“No not really, it’s just that eternity can get… boring on your own” Nathalka said and looked away with a sad smile.

“What about you? Do you have any love in your life?” I asked, unsure if I was willing to go there and even more unsure if she was willing to go there. We spend a lot of time together, got to know each other quite well, but we never talked about anything personal. Everything was about fighting, which was fun in it’s own childish way, but I felt an urge for some more insight in Nathalka’s mind. Who was she really, what was her, for a better word, human side like?

“A Death Dealer has no room for love in her life. The war is my life, my love” she said as if answering with a standard answer to the question.

“You can’t tell me there never has been anyone in your live you have loved. I know the war is important but there must be more to immortality than killing Lycans and rogue Vampires” I said as I tried to challenge her answer.

“Well, even if there was, it’s not important anymore” she said as she stood up and walked to the edge of the balcony staring out to the in snow covered gardens. She just stood there, her arms resting on the cold stone of the balcony, looking down into the snow covered gardens. She had her glass crooked in her hand and blood was dripping out of it, down into the white snow.

“So there was someone, tell me, what happened?” I asked not even sure If I wanted to know but I had a feeling this was important.

“It was many years ago, I loved her dearly and I’m pretty sure she loved me back even if we never talked about what was going on between us. It was at the time I was part of the Western European Coven. She was human. It wasn’t meant to be. She died for it and it was my fault." she blinked, trying to hide her tears. “At that moment I decided love has no place in a Death Dealer's heart”. Nathalka dropped her glass. It fell down towards the ground, spilling its content along the way. The thick layer of snow prevented from shattering. It just landed with a soft thud and got buried quickly by the fresh snow.

“What was her name?” I asked. Feeling sorry for her. Not only for not being able to be with her loved one, but for the fact she actually believed she could do without love completely.

“Ioné…” She replied. “Like I said, that was a long time ago, it doesn’t even matter anymore". She said and she walked towards the doors. “It’s getting early, we should get inside and lock the mansion down before sunlight is here”

I decided not to ask any more questions. It was getting early and I was getting tired from all the social obligations. Or it could just be the alcohol I had consumed for the first time in years.

“Nathalka, I’ve got to say something to you” I said with a little stutter in my voice.

“Shoot” she said. She breathed in deep and pulled herself together.

“You’ve become my best friend, without you, I’d be nothing. I want to thank you for showing all this to me, and guiding me through your world. I’m really genuinely grateful about it. You showed me a lot in the last couple of months.".

“Shut up Bardulf. You’re special, I wouldn’t have done it if you were just any human" she said. “I would have eaten you alive…" she said with a teasing smile exposing her fangs. That always made me shiver.

Nathalka walked away and I smiled. She would never show any emotion like that, and if she did, it didn’t meant anything good. Her harsh words said what I needed to know. She accepted me in her life.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Forever a reminder of how my curse came between us, once more.

closed the door to my room. It was pitch black inside it. My eyes quickly adjusted to the dark and I could see as if in daylight. One of the perks of being a Vampire. Gods I hated that word, It was so demeaning.

Bardulf had grown a lot in the past few weeks, but he had outgrown his own limits. I was afraid that he would not be able to control himself. After what happened in our last mission I realized he needed a lot of training. He would need to learn to control himself, else he would be more of a danger to us than be any good. 

I locked my door. I normally didn’t but now I just felt like it. I felt like I needed to be alone, undisturbed. I undressed slowly, taking off each piece of cloth covering my skin. I wanted to go to bed, cry my eyes out. Once every couple of years it just hits me like a brick. 

She stole my heart and had to break it for us to live. 

We were two different people. From different worlds. I knew it was never meant to be, I was a Vampire Death Dealer, she a human aristocrat. What was I thinking in the first place? Sure Vampires took humans as their lovers, only to drain them dry when they had become obsolete. Still, I wasn’t able to let it go. A small part in my heart always cherished some hope that it might work out. A fool's hope as it turned out.

That final night we had together was to dream about. Most people wouldn’t even encounter a tenth of that night in their lives.

I laid down on my bed. There was a cold draft, I felt the cold glide over my chest and stomach, causing for some goose bumps and a slight uncomfortable feeling. I pulled the sheets up to my shoulders. I warmed up and thought back of that one night.

It was 183 years ago. So long in mortal years, but to me it felt like it was yesterday. That night it was freezing horribly. We went to a play together. In that time, it was as romantic as seeing a movie in the late 50’s. We scuffled up together in the theatre which was filled with human aristocrats. They made me nervous, it was not common for Vampires to disguise among humans but it did happen. In that time, a lot of our feeding came from animals which was a lot less attractive than human blood. But when Ioné smiled at me, I felt at place right away. I forgot all other people around us, she was so beautiful. 

Together we walked towards her home. We went through a deserted park. Ioné was aware of my true nature and knew which routes were safe for us. It was so beautiful. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow, the branches almost snapped of the weight. Street lanterns barely lit the place enough for us to see the path before us.

It started to snow, so we walked faster. Ioné had the most beautiful laugh and almost always seemed to be in a good mood, maybe that was the part that made me feel attracted to her. She wasn’t the standard beauty, she wasn’t perfect, she was and had everything to complete me, and as long as we together felt perfect, it was alright. Her dark brown hair caught the snowflakes, making her look even more beautiful.

After a couple of minutes, we arrived at her house. She lived alone, away from her family, which was very unusual for a young lady of noble descent. She asked me inside for a cup of tea. She knew I couldn’t drink tea but it was a lovely gesture none the less. I needed to warm up, so I went inside. Her house was small but nice. It was warm and her cat was sleeping on the sofa. 

Ioné told me to make myself comfortable while she made herself some tea. I wanted to get rid of the cat but it wouldn’t let me. So I cramped up next to it, the little space it gave me.  
When Ioné returned with her tea the cat simply looked at her, stood, and jumped off the couch to let Ioné sit. I decided from that moment that I didn’t like the cat.

I looked at her, and we made eye contact. It was new, brand new to me and to her we never made eye contact like this before. She looked into my eyes and it felt like she exposed my core. Her eyes went through my body as an electrical current.

She leaned towards me and I felt her hand wrap itself around the back of my head as she leaned forward and closed her eyes. I kissed her then. I felt her tongue slip into my mouth, and our tongues fought for dominance. It was gentle and tender, even though my mind and heart were racing at that moment. I stroked her back with my left hand and her hair with my right. She was so soft, and smelled so nice.

I dragged her to the floor, towards her comfortable carpet. She got on top of me, pinning me down underneath her warm body. As she straddled my lap she slowly started unbuttoning her blouse. I was unable to move, her beauty was so intense that I couldn’t keep my eyes of her. She could read that in mine, and smiled.

She threw away her blouse and revealed a beautiful cream colored corset. Her skin was smooth and a healthy pink color. She smiled and bowed her head forwards. I tried to unbutton my own black blouse, but when I looked down, it appeared to have 15 buttons. Ioné bowed forwards letting her hair fall over her face. She grabbed my shirt and tore it open, making all the 15 buttons fly through the air. The cat looked up in confusion and ran after a few of the buttons. She grabbed a pair of scissors from the table. My eyes opened wide because I knew what she was planning to do.

“No no no no!” I said but it was too late. She had cut my brassiere into two equal pieces.  
I lifted my upper body and felt my clothes slide of my arms and waist. Ioné stared at me, and I felt exposed. We fell into each other’s arms and started to kiss once more. We both helped each other to take the rest of our clothes off. Taking of her corset took all of my constraint.

The soft texture of her skin almost melted together with mine. Right now, I felt more aroused as I ever felt before. Her skin was so warm to mine. Her left hand stroked my skin. Her fingertips gently touched my hips, it felt like she pushed the air against me, not her fingers.  
Right then I felt her hand slide in between my thighs. I gasped and bit on my bottom lip. I let both of my hands glide over her back. It felt like silk. I closed my eyes and could still see her in front of me. I felt so complete, as if I never was really myself up until this moment. My hands were sliding down over her body leaving a trail of goosebumps over her stomach.

I felt her hand slide up again. She placed both her hands on the carpet next to my head, and slowly pushed herself down. She kissed my belly, her tongue making small circles around my belly-button.

Ioné came up again and I rolled us over causing me to end up on top of her. I kissed her again and slowly made my way to her neck. “It’s okay my love, you can drink from me” she said in her husky voice. My mind was clouded with lust as I slowly sank my fangs into her perfect skin. Her back arched in pleasure as I drank from her. The taste of her was exquisite. I withdrew and kissed her again. Staining her lips with her own blood.

I moved my weight off her and turned towards her, causing me to face her face, both lying on our sides. I let my hand glide over her thighs and slowly stroking her skin. I felt her squirm as I kissed her. Our hands worked our magic, we made love that night for the first and the last time.

We were so close. I felt myself getting warmer and looked at Ioné’s face. Her big beautiful eyes were filled with love, it almost made me cry. Little pearls of sweat were sparkling on her face, She felt as warm as I was. I pressed my forehead against her. She threw her unused arm around me, and hugged me.

Right then, at the climax of our night, the most intimate night I had ever lived in my long life, the sun rose up, and a ray of light fell into the room, right on top of us. I screamed as I withdrew my arm to the shadow. The sun had left his permanent mark on my skin that night. Forever a reminder of how my curse came between us, once more.

Our love did not last long. She was murdered by some members of the aristocracy. They said they had no idea the human was under my protection, but I knew differently. Consorting with a human was defying their rules. For some reason they found out and killed her for it. It was my fault Ioné had died. It was my fault and I had to live with that. This was shortly before I moved north. I had to leave and never look back.

A tear rolled down my face as I drifted to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “No, you just listen! You need to understand. The safety of my coven has to come first, It always has! I know you and Kristan have been working together and making progress but shit like what happened today, I can’t have that happening again without me being prepared for something like that!” I didn’t want to hurt him but this he had to hear.

I cocked my pistol. Not because it was necessary, but the sound is the most intimidating sound you can ever imagine. The sound of impending death, the release of the bullet just a mere pull of a finger away. The bullet that could potentially end someone’s life.

Nathalka always said she liked the sound, it gave her the strength and confidence to plunge into battle. The sound didn’t translate into fear in her head, she was holding the gun herself, it translated to dominance and control. Her methods caught on to me like the flu, I spend a good three months in her company and we fought side by side for two. I barely recognized myself when fighting, my old, inferior, fighting style was replaced by the more sophisticated kind. I still received some rigorous training from Nathalka, but it proved to be very beneficial. At times, Nathalka was training new Death Dealers, so I could catch some time in the old library. They didn’t have any conventional translation dictionaries, but there were a few helpful tools for me to read some basic Vampire lore. The more I read, the more I felt home in their language. I could use basic words and sentences, like greetings and thanks, in everyday life now, much to the amusement of the other Vampires in the coven. 

I looked at Nathalka. I knew I’d never get tired of seeing that sheer happiness in her eyes. It wasn’t really the life she hoped for but she managed to make the best of it. This way, at least, she could make a difference in the world, something that most humans cannot say about themselves. I was squatting down against a little wooden wall. Nathalka was behind a brick wall, for which I really envied her at this moment.  
On the other side of those walls, was a gather of rogue Vampires and Lycans. If they even smelled us being here, and with Vampires that is very likely, they would open fire upon us.

I grinned at her and shook my head, she knew what I was thinking, she even stroked the goddamn wall as if it was her lover.

I switched my pistol from semi to full automatic. Kristan was a big help to me, he came up with the best gadgets. Although the full automatic function was merely a gimmick than a helpful tool, the spread and knockback were nothing to write home about, it did cause panic in the room, forcing the enemy to spread apart behind cover and giving Nathalka the chance to pick them off one by one from their flanks.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, readying myself for battle, and felt something odd happened to me. It felt like there was more light in the room than before. When I opened my eyes, it felt like I was wearing some sort of light enhancing goggles. My mouth was filled with an irony taste. I thought I had bit my tongue.

I lifted myself up, from the ground, revealing myself to the audience at the other side of the room. I could clearly hear the cracking of leather jackets when they pulled out their weapons. I switched my pistol back to semi automatic and, before the enemy could, I emptied my first clip of UV rounds. When the clip ran out, I ejected it and replaced it with a new magazine before the old one could hit the ground. I released another salvo, this time filled with silver nitrate, and stopped when the last bullet left the barrel. For a moment, the smell of sulfur and the sound of screams filled the room. The room lit up as if it was a firework storage room gone to flames.  
After a few seconds, only the smell, hissing sounds and a few piles of ashes were left.

Nathalka didn’t even had a chance to open fire. She looked at me with awe.

“How the hell… What just happened?” she asked.

“I killed them?” I replied.

“You were so fast that they didn’t even had time to fire back, what the hell is happening?”

I was confused. I could have sworn that the entire fight lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes.

“How did you do that? How did you move so fast? Only the bullets were faster than you".  
She said to me, still looking with that shocked expression.

“Don’t talk like that, I don’t know what you drank this morning, but it didn’t do you any good” I said to her.

“Listen you fucking idiot! Don’t you see? The ashes were still falling, the screams were still going on when you stopped firing, and you didn’t miss a single shot! Doesn’t that amaze you? Couldn’t you have done this a few weeks earlier? It would save us a lot of trouble and time!”

I started to realize what happened.

“You get it? Let’s get the hell back to the coven to find out what the frak is going on with you! A few weeks ago you drained me near to death, and now you move like time doesn’t has any influence on you!”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was scared, I truly was. Who was he? WHAT was he? It was clear to me that he was no Lycan nor a Vampire. He might have been infected with the Lycanthropy virus, it was clear that he was way different from those beasts. Not knowing what to expect of him scared me, he was dangerous and I knew it. Kristan had been working with him in the daytime hours when I was confined to stay within the safety of Olavinlinna. He was expanding his powers but they still didn’t seem fully within his grasp. Stuff like this kept happening to us, and honestly it scared me.

“We need to go, NOW” I said, I didn’t look him in the eye. I wasn’t sure what to say.

We got into our car and speeded back to Olavinlinna. I was a fast driver but now I raced as fast as the snowy roads would carry us. He looked at me during our drive, I didn’t look back, I kept my eyes stuck to the road. We didn’t say a word to eachother the entire ride. I think he could sense that I was shook up by what happened.

I parked the car right in front of the door to our fortress. The big oak doors slammed open and I walked in, dropping my coat and shoes at the door. “I’m going to see Miika, I’ll talk to you later” I said at him without giving him another look.

I knocked the door to Miika’s office.  
“Miika… Miika oletko siellä? Minun täytyy puhua sinulle! I slowly opened the door

“Nathalka, Mikä hätänä? Mitä tapahtui? Wasn’t your mission successful?” Miika said.

“Yes it was… perhaps a little too successful” I said as I sat down in front of Miika’s desk.  
Quickly glancing at the paperwork Miika was working on. They were files, files of rogues, files of Lycans. It would have been easier for him to work with a computer but Miika never managed to have the patience to learn to work with one. And he was right, by the time he learned to work with one model it was already outdated and the next one followed.  
In an immortal life technology, that made work faster and easier, seemed pretty obsolete.

“Talk to me, what are your concerns?” Miika said, concern reflecting in his bright eyes.

“We got to the location as planned. We got in, took our positions, all the suspects were there". I took a deep breath trying not to race through it. “I blinked my eyes and when I looked again he already shot all our suspects! I couldn’t even aim and he already shot all of them! It was as if he defied time. None of the rogues even fired a shot... they were taken out before they even raised a weapon…” I took another breath.

“Bardulf looked as surprised as I was. I don’t know If I can work with him anymore, he’s too dangerous. He doesn’t control his powers, he doesn’t know what or who he is! I mean a few weeks ago he nearly drained me of my life energy to heal himself. And tonight this!” I ended my rant and looked at Miika with frustration.

Miika didn’t reply he just looked at me. Lines forming on his forehead as he was deeply in thought.

“He says he won’t hurt me, and I truly believe he doesn’t want to. But I’m not sure he can make such a promise…".

“Kristan informed me last night about the progress our stranger made. Kristan is a good teacher, but he’s unconventional, as we all know. That’s why he lives outside of the coven. Bardulf needs to be able to restrain his powers, that what he can’t control isn’t good for him, or us". Miika said, keeping his calm as always but I could see in his eyes that he was alarmed by this news. It was a big step for him to take Bardulf in as one of us but I knew that whenever Bardulf might pose a threat to the coven, we might have to let him go.

“Nathalka, I have placed my faith in you many more times before. And I must ask of you again to be the judge in this situation. If Bardulf is too much to handle, if he is indeed dangerous… you know what must be done… we can’t let the coven run a risk” Miika said. His words hit me hard but I knew he was right, the past weeks I started to fear for my life around Bardulf.

“Alright, I will talk to him, something needs to happen” I said. With new found determination I got up and walked out of Miika’s office. Bardulf was in the lounge, making some chats with some of the coven members.

“Bardulf we need to talk, now” I spoke dominantly, I wasn’t ready to be put off.

He got up and followed me to my office.

“Sit please” I said.

I saw he was ready to speak, ready to make an excuse in what happened. I didn’t let him. I wasn’t ready to hear this.

“Bardulf listen. You know I’ve always trusted you this far in our mission together. As I have with my fellow Death Dealers. You have been a great companion this far but you have become dangerous. I can’t trust my life into the hands of someone who scares me. I can’t fully devote my attention to my enemies and worry about you at the same time” I said my arms crossed over my chest.

“Nathalka I…” he started.

“No, you just listen! You need to understand. The safety of my coven has to come first, It always has! I know you and Kristan have been working together and making progress but shit like what happened today, I can’t have that happening again without me being prepared for something like that!” I didn’t want to hurt him but this he had to hear.

“Bardulf… I think it’s better that for now you won’t join me and the Death Dealers on a mission…” I finished, staring at him waiting for his response.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am new to all this, I didn’t live in this world for hundreds and hundreds of years. I am the one who has to learn to live with these powers. She is already who she is! She can’t possibly BEGIN to understand what it’s like! I smashed my fist on the table.

For years I have lived in the dark corners of the world, trying to do good in a world filled with evil. Humanity didn’t deserve the work that was done for them in the shadows. Why would they need saving if they kept on destroying themselves. I could hardly remember anything of my life. There were these huge gaps after I got pulled out of that fire, and after that I just remember roaming around, hiding in the dark.

I picked up the lamp besides my bed, the only source of light in my room. This stinking dark shithole of a mansion, unheated, unlit, locked up during the day, was a prison instead of a sanctuary. The lamp was a piece of beauty. Probably painted by hand and hundreds of years old. I smashed it into the mirror and watched the broken pieces fly around.

“That FRAKKING BITCH!” I shouted. I couldn’t see clear anymore tears had sprung in my eyes. For the past few weeks we fought against every kind of corruption and betrayal, we saved the coven and humans alike, and now I was a danger to her. I was the most dangerous part of this job all of a sudden, a danger to the Vampire covenant. There was not a moments consideration about how it felt to me, to be a stranger into my own mind and body.

I am new to all this, I didn’t live in this world for hundreds and hundreds of years. I am the one who has to learn to live with these powers. She is already who she is! She can’t possibly BEGIN to understand what it’s like! I smashed my fist on the table.

Nathalka might have been born human, but she lost touch with humanity a long time ago. Everything is relative to time, and time was on their side. How easy was it for them to cut loose the ties of partnership, brotherhood, friendship. How can you regret past decisions when you have an eternity to live.

Why can’t I be fighting by her side, why does she leave me in the mansion? Surrounded by people who didn’t really know, who didn’t really trust me, because part of me is their enemy.

I was never bitten or turned by a Lycan. If Nathalka was right, I was a test subject, even a freak in the Lycan eyes.

I stared at the broken pieces of the mirror. It was scattered over the floor. The silver shards, lethal to a Lycanthrope, were nothing but cold in my hands. When I grabbed one, I felt the sharp glass cut into my hand. It was painful, but not lethal. My reflection in the shard of mirror stared back at me. I always thought my eyes were brighter than I those that I saw in my reflection, just like I thought my skin was never this rough. Was this really me?

Two loud bangs on my door woke me from my trance. I looked at the door, and back to my hand. My reflection was perfectly fine. Must have been imagining it. Unlike the cut in my hand.

I walked to the door and unlocked it. Miika walked into the room.

“You know why I am here” Miika said. He entered my room and the door closed behind him, although he nor I touched it. “Let me guess, you’re pissed about the lamp?” I said, obvious sarcasm intended, still not sure I was convincing enough.

“Everyone in this coven has their own speciality. We have technicians, programmers, soldiers, runners, morphers, you name it. You have your own talents, talents that make you unique. Nobody here would tell you to behave other than the way you are” he said to me in a uncomfortably calm voice. “However, there are rules to be followed, codes to live by, because if we don’t we don’t survive”.

“Why am I being punished for it?” I asked him. He looked at me with his piercing eyes. Those grey eyes, as if they were blinded a long time ago, yet you could feel them watching you, observing you. Eyes that could look right through you. You were unable to hide anything for Miika, it was one of the reasons that he could run this covenant as well as he did. “And why am I being treated like a child?!” I said, quite childish ironically.

“Because in our eyes, compared to our age, you are a child. If you don’t want to be treated like a child then why the hell do you ask questions like a child? You want to be respected and tolerated as an adult? Act like one".

“I’m new to all this!” I tried not to yell but he obviously didn’t get nor share my frustration

“You’ve got a big brain but yet you fail to see the obvious. We cannot help you learn to talk, eat or walk. We can give you tips and push you in the right direction but you have to take your own steps. You seem to forget the gravity of the fact that I took you into my house. If you think you are worthless and a waste of our time, I urge you to take a good hard look at yourself instead of pointing the finger to us. We all had to start from the bottom and I know that, in contrary to us, you don’t have an eternity to get accustomed to our life, but you have to work on it yourself” Miika said fierce yet calm as always.

“Why did Nathalka leave me? Why is she angry?” I asked. I felt myself breaking down, dealing with my uncontrollable outbursts were one thing, but my relationship with Nathalka was way more delicate and important to myself.

“First of all, stop being so paranoid, because she is not angry! If you knew Nathalka you know that she handles things in a very peculiar manner. When something stands in her way, she won’t find a path around it. She will remove that particular presence out of her path and continue forward. Nothing stands between her and her job. Not you, not me, not a lover, nobody. She has little patience and her work is more important to her than her personal life. That’s why she is our finest warrior. But you were the first, in many centuries, that made her feel compassion and concern. That scares her, she can’t use that in the missions ahead".

“But... I just want…”

Miika looked me straight in the eye. “Can’t you see that this is not about you? Could you stop being so selfish for just one minute?”

I nodded, Miika was right. All this time I was so worried on how I behaved towards Nathalka and I realized that this was only because I needed to have confirmation that I did the right thing. That I was doing the things that made her proud, made her accept me in her world. But the truth was, I had to get my own blessings. I had to be proud about myself. For years I ran away from normal life, from any bit of responsibility, placing the cause of the problems at other people’s feet.

“You want the best for her, you want to help her and make her proud. She wants that too, but she cannot spare the time to teach you everything. If you truly care about her you accept that” Miika walked back across the room towards the door, and opened it by hand.

“Work hard, learn how this world works, we will need you. Sooner rather than later".

Miika walked through the door and closed it. I walked towards the eastern wall. I looked at the cold hard bricks. There were certain talents in me that had to be unlocked. If I were to make a difference, find my own place in this world, I had to work on controlling them properly.

I turned my head towards the mirror pieces. My reflection visible in the last piece still attached to the frame. I was afraid of what I would see, but everything was still normal. The piece of mirror fell down onto the floor.

I felt the need to lock myself out again. Out of this world. Emotions are killing me.  
Emotions are just neurons firing through the brain, which make you feel the way you feel. In the end, all feelings can be reduced to a biological process in the brain, they don’t have to mean anything more. 

But if we rule out emotion, rule out fear, anger or even love. Then what is there to fight for? Why do we save the people we save? Why do we kill the people we kill? Nathalka might tell you that it’s all about weighing the pro’s and con’s and make a logical choice for the first or the second. Maybe for her, she isn’t human but I knew for me life isn’t that academic. We make choice from our feeling, from our gut instinct in what is wrong and what is right.  
I could let the Lycans destroy the world, why would I care? If I didn’t have any emotion anymore it wouldn’t be worth is. The truth is, I do need that emotion. An emotion by the name of Nathalka.  
For the first time in my life I felt the need to prove myself to someone, I wanted to show Nathalka that she could rely on me. I would support her through and through, but I worked so hard in proving that fact, that I forgot all about actually showing it. I cared for her, for her kind. And therefore I would train, as hard as I can. I would work not to prove that I was valuable, but work to be a dependable asset, and to be Nathalka’s friend. From here I had to use this energy, the boiling blood caused by paranoia and insecurity, as a fuel source. I had a lot to learn.

My body and mind felt exhausted. Time for sleep. I’d apologize to Nathalka in the morning.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything has changed since I found Bardulf, including me.

For the past eight weeks I’ve been alone in my room. I locked myself up from the outside world and created my new world with the Vampire rules.

Nathalka comes by to check up to me every 3 days, she’s very occupied planning a new mission. She doesn’t talk much about it but I notice that she hadn’t had any proper rest in a while. Something is going on, something big.

If possible she looked paler than ever and there was extreme exhaustion written in her eyes.  
The house was in a state of unrest I could sense it. Everyone seemed more on their guard, more alert or something. Still she did come by to make sure I keep eating, kept my strength up. I’ve been training my body and mind for eight weeks straight and I lost five kilos.  
I haven’t seen daylight since and started to look more and more like the Vampires, social contact had been lost completely, except for Nathalka or Markus taking care of my basic needs.

Nathalka walked into my room, closed the door behind her.   
“You ok?” she asked me.

I was sitting in a corner on the other side of the door, my knees draw to my face, arms resting on my knees. I opened my eyes. I didn’t turn on the light, I could see much better in the dark right now, just like during that fight. I believed that my eyes were actually glowing but can’t tell that for sure. Nathalka’s however, for sure were.

She clicked the light on and it took me a few moments to get used to the light. I blinked my eyes a few time until I saw sharp again.

“I’ve got another mission, Bardulf…. I’m sorry but it’s too dangerous to bring you…". I saw in her eyes that it was hard for her to tell me I couldn’t come because I might pose a threat.

“Okay” I said calmly. “It means that I’m not ready". We felt quiet for a few minutes. Then I broke the silence. “If you doubt me, it’s never a good thing".

She rolled her eyes. Nathalka was never really someone for self pity. I should have known better by now. I regretted my remark already. “Come on Bardulf, you know very well that I would be more than happy to bring you. But after our last encounter I can only have eyes for this mission. Things are happening, and if I am right they could potentially be huge. I can’t do my job and look out for you at the same time. I’m sorry”

I cleared my throat uncomfortably and decided to drop the subject. It was painful for me to hear Nathalka didn’t trust me enough to bring me on a dangerous mission but I knew she was right. “What’s the mission about? I’ve noticed unrest in the mansion, something is about to happen”

Nathalka let out a deep sigh “You’re right, there is stuff to happen, and if I’m right we’re all in danger. We’ve took out a mayor Rogue underground coven in the Southern regions a few weeks ago. There were documents present that spoke of a Vampire god. Kind of like Dracula resurrected. They were so fixated upon the myths about Vampires, that they’ve made a lair in Transylvania".

I smiled at her “Vampires are like Christians. They believe whatever is written in a book that claims to be written by god”

I saw in her face that she was clearly annoyed but she didn’t give it any attention.  
“If this were any other mission I would laugh at your joke, However, I am very serious about this. There have always been fanatics. Those who what to see the Vampire clans rule the earth once more. To be animals with no compassion for the lives of others. In those days we were no better than the Lycans” I saw in her eyes that this was indeed not just any mission.

“We’ve been tracking their movement for years. They always seem to find ways to hide from us. But now I’ve gathered some pretty good intel and I’m going there, I’m taking 4 other Death Dealers. Let’s see what they’ve got. It’s an intel only mission so I don’t expect too much trouble” she smiled but I was worried none the less. 

“Bring me back a souvenir would you?” I asked to lighten the conversation.

“I’ll bring you Transylvanian beer". she said and she smiled again, I loved it when she smiled, it made her eyes sparkle.

Nathalka left the room. I listened to her footsteps fade out in the hallway, and when she was completely gone, I closed my eyes again. And focussed on my breathing. After Nathalka left I had a hard time focussing on my exercises.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was looking at my feet when I walked down the steps of the big stairway. I never looked at my feet, my parents taught me to always look up at the sky, even when it rains.  
Gods, my parents, so long ago. Quickly I shook my thoughts. I can’t have that now, I need to focus.

Miika was waiting for me in the lobby. I walked towards him and looked around to see if nobody was listening. Bardulf wasn’t a secret but his recent developments, concerned the other coven members to say the least.

“How is he?” Miika asked me.

“Better, he needs a new room though"I replied and smiled at Miika.

Miika smiled back “How are you?” he asked as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Also better, it’s different to work without him, although I’ve done it for centuries, it isn’t the same anymore". 

Together we walked to Miika’s office.

“He needs a little bit more time, the improvements he makes are astonishing. But you can’t bring him on the mission ahead. It’s too dangerous, you know what’s at stake".

“I know. It’s too dangerous. He needs to train and be ready when the time comes for us all to fight” I said as a walked up to Miika’s desk where old parchments were scattered around the desk. I bend over the desk and looked at some of the paperwork.

“What you’ve found out about the cult?” I asked as I moved some of his paperwork to get a better look.

Miika sat down in his big chair across from me.  
“They are following this ancient Rogue Bible, you know, basic extremist propaganda, humans are the flock to be nourished from, non-pure bloods should serve the purebloods et cetera” he said as he pointed to some documents. I had to dig deep in my memory to remember how to read this ancient language.

“So far intel has shown us that they are a group of both Vampires and Lycans working together. Prophecy speaks of such a union which will leave both Vampire and Lycan society in ruin” Miika said. I could tell from his face he took this quite seriously. This was not your usual group of stick up aristocrats feasting on some humans. 

“This is why I’m asking you to go. Take your best Death Dealers and figure out what it is they want. What are their numbers, where are they hiding. We need this mission to be covert. On a need to know basis. I just need intel, don’t put yourself in danger. There will be time for that later.” 

“I know, and I will. You know I will” I said. I would do anything Miika asked of me. For the first time I was really afraid. I did not control this situation. These rogues seemed well organized and after something bigger. I hugged Miika tight as I left him in his office.

Everything has changed since I found Bardulf, including me.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I am over one hundred and forty years old?” I asked surprised. Miika laughed.  
> “Maybe, yes. It’s plausible. The rest of the documents show the testing procedure and results, if you are interested in reading them. They basically say that you refused to turn, your body rejected every Lycanthrope cell. Your DNA actually adapted to fight the genes, the therapy more or less destroyed every broken strand of DNA and replaced it with DNA that developed your, currently still dormant, strengths. Hence, all their strength, none of their weakness.”

A week had passed since Nathalka left for her mission to Transylvania. We had a few short transmissions from the team but, in order to keep their cover, they had to maintain radio silence. Their mission was to observe a rogue cult. Nathalka had her Death Dealers infiltrate the inner circle, it took them months to gain their positions. As usual for Nathalka, she had left about a week ago to be close to her squad. She liked to oversee them personally, gave them direct orders and gather all the intel first hand. Her job didn’t particularly interest me, so I wasn’t envious about it. It gave me the chance to refocus, get re-acquainted with the house, its inhabitants and its ruler. Miika had been very supportive and I found that I gained a lot more respect and trust if I learned to walk on my own and wasn’t afraid of falling down from time to time. Slowly but surely, I started to get in touch with my strength. Not by much, but there was visible progress. A hopeful start.

At one night I got summoned by Miika. Markus knocked on my door to tell me that Miika had requested my presence. I knew that it had to be serious because Markus wasn’t his normal humorous self. The cold and demanding intonation in Markus’ voice made me uncomfortable. You know that feeling you get when you know that there is bad or serious news, that feeling made me hesitant to go to Miika’s office. I was still quite the avoidable type when it came to confrontation, unknown situations, responsibility.

I walked the long halls on my way to Miika’s office. I couldn’t help but still be impressed with my surroundings, of the art on the walls and ceiling, the perfect architecture of the building and the beautifully sculpted wooden doorposts and pillars. When I came to Miika’s door with the big ‘M’ on it, I hesitated. I swallowed hard before knocking. But before my knuckles touched the hard wooden door I heard Miika’s deep voice rumble; “Enter”, from the other side. I hated it when he did that.

“Bardulf” Miika said. “Take a seat”. He was way too quiet, way too serious. Did something happen to Nathalka? Would that be why Markus was so serious? I can’t imagine what other news might be this serious.

“What’s wrong?” I asked while taking a seat. I was sweating, my heart was racing, my ears felt hot, my blood pressure was high. It took effort to keep my voice straight.  
“Nobody died” Miika said. “Relax, breathe, in through your nose, push it out through your mouth”. Miika was training me in controlling my emotions. I did as he instructed me and felt my body relax, my hands stop shaking.

“There was a raid on Lycan hideout thirteen days ago, it was supposed to be a clean job, medium difficulty, good training for Death Dealers who were still in training”. Miika paused.  
“What went wrong?” I asked, not quite knowing what this had to do with me.  
“The compound was guarded by an elite group of wolves. These are also the group that shot you and Nathalka with those UV rounds a few months ago. Also it is the group that Nathalka is currently investigating in transylvania. Any ordinary hideout of Lycans would be filled with standard troops, the ones that fight each other for fun like a pack of rabid dogs, this was not the case. We lost eight Death Dealers that night, but won the battle”.  
“I don’t really know what this all has to do with me” I replied.  
“The presence of these elite wolves let us to believe there was more hidden in that place. We searched it thoroughly and our suspicious proved to be correct. We found a laboratory, an old one. There was barely anything left, no research going on anymore, but we did found some archives”. He paused again. “We found this”. Miika shoved me a moldy bundle of paper. It was clearly compromised by being improperly stored in a damp environment for decades. I opened it up.

Name: Unknown   
Sex: Male  
Date of birth: 3-8-1875

Place of origin: Stonehearst Psychiatric Hospital 

Suggested research department: Lycanthrope Genome Dept. 84

Notes:  
Subject is a 9 (nine) year old male taken from Stonehearst Psychiatric Hospital, presumed dead due to fire. Wristband with personal information scorched, only date of birth comprehensible. Recent research about subject showed potential skill in fighting, clairvoyance. Subject says he sees “darkness”, speaks about demons and monsters, seems to be aware of our existence. Viable subject for gene therapy. Potential Elite. Suggested type of transformation via gene therapy instead of direct byte, subject can be used for research until he reaches the proper age for transformation.

I read this all in disbelief. It seemed to fit, my origin, the therapy could even explain what I am today but…

“I am over one hundred and forty years old?” I asked surprised. Miika laughed.  
“Maybe, yes. It’s plausible. The rest of the documents show the testing procedure and results, if you are interested in reading them. They basically say that you refused to turn, your body rejected every Lycanthrope cell. Your DNA actually adapted to fight the genes, the therapy more or less destroyed every broken strand of DNA and replaced it with DNA that developed your, currently still dormant, strengths. Hence, all their strength, none of their weakness.”

“I am over one hundred and forty years old?” I asked again.  
“Yes, I am ninety percent sure that you are.” Miika replied. “I’ll give you one day to let this information sink in. The day after tomorrow, I will start a new training course and you will visit a psychologist every two days for the next two weeks.”

The news slowly started to take its place in my head. “Why a psychologist?” I asked.  
“If you process this information badly, you’re more trouble to as than an asset. You don’t want that, I don’t want that. I have faith in you, I know you’re intelligent enough to process this properly, but I don’t want to take any risk. There was probably a better way to break this information to you, but I felt I had to tell you this personally. Bardulf, this will only make you stronger.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The Lycans know of Bardulf” I said. As I dropped down into a seat. I didn’t have time to finish my sentence as Miika immediately interrupted me.

After 3 weeks of gathering intel we left our Transylvanian safe house and were on our way back to Olavinlinna. The rotor blades of the helicopter made a deafening sound. Although our bodies healed quickly, I wore ear protection to prevent the pain in my eardrums. I couldn’t think in all this noise, which made the trip seem even longer than it already was. I didn’t like what I saw during my mission. I couldn’t believe that it went unnoticed for this long. Sure I knew the stories, but I never gave them more credit than other urban legends. When the helicopter landed a couple of kilometers away from our mansion, I immediately jumped out and rushed towards my escort.

“Drive” I said in a commanding tone. The driver pressed his foot on the gas and the car drove away, spraying gravel from the rear tires.

It was the end of winter. Snow sporadically changed into rain and froze again in the night. It turned the once beautiful, white blanket of snow into a cold, hard layer of ice. The world looked as fragile as glass and this was the exact way I felt about our coven. Ready to break. I had to talk to Miika as soon as I arrived at Olavinlinna.

The car slipped over the frozen asphalt of the parking lot. It came to a steady halt. I opened the door, stepped out the car and felt the heel of my boot crush the ice. I walked towards the door, unto the concrete steps and pushed the wooden doors open.

“I need to talk to Miika, urgently” I said to the first Vampire I saw. Couldn’t remember his name, too new. I made a mental note to have a look at our covens latest member list. I had been too absorbed by my work. I didn’t know who lived here and did what, that was dangerous for a leader of the Death Dealers. The new face didn’t have to search long for Miika as he already approached me in the hallway.

“I heard you arrived, tell me” he said in a serious tone. He was always one step ahead, always knew when something good or bad had happened.

“The Lycans know of Bardulf” I said. As I dropped down into a seat. I didn’t have time to finish my sentence as Miika immediately interrupted me.  
“I know” he said to me. “We are also almost certain about who he is. We found his test reports in a raid a couple of weeks ago. The site was protected by this group of rogues, they undoubtedly know we got the reports” he said. It shocked me. Bardulf was kind of my personal project and I didn’t know about this development. How could I, I wasn’t here when they uncovered all the information and I maintained radio silence for the most part of my mission. “I… how did Bardulf take it?” I asked, remembering his earlier breakdown it couldn’t have been good.  
“He is handling it, we couldn’t hold the information back from him until you were back. I’m sorry”. He was comforting, a strange feeling, it made me feel more vulnerable. “But please, tell me what you discovered”.  
“They know we have Bardulf, it caused them to speed up their search for the Dark Vampire. Although they are not searching for a viable subject anymore, they are trying to create it themselves. It’s like a Frankenstein’s Monster, the gene therapy they have been developing the last years is insane. Humanity is decades away in their research”. I took a deep breath and tried to pace myself as I went through the story. 

“I couldn’t figure out how Lycans were able to come up with such an idea, and the resources to do such research. But there are rogue Vampires in control of this conspiracy. They are using the Lycans to get what they want. The domination over human kind, again. So far they can not complete their research. They need blood”. I paused, this was crazy, I couldn’t believe it myself. “They need the blood of Vampire Elders. So far, they caught four of them and bled them dry”.

“A faction of their group holds a stronghold not too far from here. I am guessing they will hit our mansion as well, and soon. If they get what they come for they will transport the blood back to Transylvania where they’ve set up shop” I said.

“My blood” Miika uttered. Miika was the only elder in our clan and the only one of worth to the rogue faction. 

“Yes, yours and that of Elizabeth and William which we have in storage” I said and looked at him gravely. This thing was big. If they could create their Dark Vampire there would be no telling what would happen next. We always had the upper hand when it came to the Lycans, we had more financial resources which made our tech far more superior and our hunting more efficient. But with rogue Vampires helping them to create a Dark Vampire, we were not even sure what that would entail, what resources they would have to their aid.

“Yes, it would seem that we have to organize the troops”. Miika sounded calm, focused as always. But his eyes had changed. I could read something there. It wasn’t fear, but he was for sure shook up.

“Miika we can do this, we always have” I said as I placed my arm upon his shoulder. “Give the word and I will get my men and women ready for this fight. They will not leave this place with one drop” I smiled at him. He smiled back and padded my hand.

“No they will not, my child, they will not” he smiled, but on the inside he hurt.

After my meeting with Miika I went to my room. I took a long shower to gather my thoughts. I had to see Bardulf but he would have to wait. The past weeks had been extremely exhausting and it didn’t look like this would change any day soon. I washed my hair and took my time. It had gotten longer and I had to braid it now as I went into battle. 

After my shower I changed in my comfortable clothes and went to Bardulf’s room.  
When I knocked he opened the door right away

“Hey stranger” I said, I forced a smile.

“Hi back. Want to accompany me in some fine dining?” He asked as he opened the door to his room.

“Sure, why not”. I entered his room. It looked a little different since the last time I was there. He had some new furniture as well as a fridge and a thing I believed to be a microwave. A horrible smell came from it. It looked different, but not as different as Bardulf. He looked more composed even after he had learned about himself so recently. Perhaps it brought him a sense of belonging, a sense of self.

I took a seat on his bed and saw him fight with the plastic wrapping of his so called meal. 

“Miika told me what happened. Are you okay?” I asked him. Not sure if I had the energy at this moment to be a psychologist also. But I could be a friend.

“Yes, I guess I am fine. Of course it scares me that I have lived for such a long time without remembering much of it. But somehow I feel like things just click better in my brain now. I haven’t had any more incidents after you’ve left. I feel like I am better in control of my strength” he said as he ate his meal.

“That makes me happy” I said and truly meant it. I was growing accustomed to his presence. And he was much more interesting than most other figures that were walking around the coven.

“Hey Bardulf” I started. “It’s good. I mean sure, things can’t always be perfect. But we will work on it okay?” I smiled.

“Yes we will”. He smiled back.

“You should get some sleep” he said as he caught me nodding off.

“Yes I should! I replied as I got off from his bed. We will talk more about the mission tomorrow I promise”. I got up and walked back to my room.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I know, I know that he is ready. I just really hate leaving you”.

The next morning I woke up from a knock on the door.

“Bardulf are you up? Miika wants to see us” I heard Nathalka from the other side of the door

“Give me a sec!” I yelled back as I jumped out of bed and scrambled some clothes together. Two minutes later I opened the door

“Well, good morning to you too” she said. She looked better, not nearly as exhausted as she looked last night. Still there was something about her, she looked older somehow. Somehow not the same, playful Death Dealer I met months ago. 

“Morning” I replied as I ran my hand through my hair, trying to tame my long locks. My hair had really grown like crazy the last few months.

Once in Miika’s office Nathalka filled me in on what she and her team had found out in Transylvania. Nathalka spoke calm, composed as she explained what had transpired on her mission and what this would mean for the future of her coven. Well, our coven. I felt more and more in place in my current habitat, and the thought of losing something that became so dear to me made my stomach tie in a knot.

“I’ve send word to the other houses, more troops will arrive on the morrow” Miika said.  
“We will defend this house” he said resolute. For some reason when Miika spoke, it gave me the feeling that everything would be okay in the end.

“Bardulf, I’ve made you and Elija responsible for deploying the troops” he added. 

“Me?” I asked right away. Perhaps I had misheard him? I looked over at Nathalka and judging from her face she was just as shocked as I was.

“Bardulf and Elija?” she said, clearly a little hurt and equally confused.

Elija was a good Death Dealer. I did not know him very well but, on the few missions he had accompanied us, he seemed very focused and deadly. A perfect killing machine.

“Yes, I need you to go back to Transylvania, Nathalka. If we can not stop them here, you will be our last line of defense” Miika said as he looked at her with a pleading look in his eyes. “I would not ask you to do this if I thought anyone was up for the task. But the truth is you are the best I have got. And I need you for this!”. 

“I will do what you ask of me, you know that” she replied, but she did not seem happy with Miika’s wishes. 

“The other senior Death Dealers are responsible for protecting the elders and evacuating the others. I need Elija and Bardulf here to strategize our defense” he added. 

“Nathalka” Miika said. “I know this conflicts your personal feelings but you have to trust me on this one. The best defense is a good offense, you know that. I can guarantee you that Bardulf’s strength has improved in what he could do before. That combined with our small army here and we’ll be fine. You as no other know how incoherent the Lycan troops are. They are wild, mad, they rush in and get themselves killed. As long as we don’t let them swarm us, we can withhold a few attacks. You’re job is to make sure that that swarm stays where it’s most important. In Transylvania”.

Miika was right. Nathalka wouldn’t be of much use here, as just one extra footsoldier between the ranks. She would perform better on a mission. 

When all was said we stood around Miika’s desk in an awkward silence. Nobody had a clue as to what to say. Just as I mustered the confidence to open my mouth, Nathalka said “You, in the gym in 20 minutes” as she left the office and did not look back as she marched for her room.

“You better go get ready” Miika said. “By the look on her face you are in for a world of pain my friend” he smiled but I felt uncomfortable.

Exactly 20 minutes later I walked into the gym. I found Nathalka was already there. She was giving a punching bag in the corner of the room a hard time. I stood there for a while and observed her. She was very good at what she did. Her body was her tool, her weapon of choice when it came to killing. She was lean but not fragile. Even though she seemed like she was boiling on the inside, her actions were precise. She was in control. She landed one blow after another exactly where she planned it. Never giving up her control. 

I walked up to her from behind but her superhuman senses already told her it was me without having to look up. “Miika said you made progress” she said to me in a cold, impersonal tone still throwing punches at the bag. “You think you have what it takes to protect this place?”. When Nathalka spoke the last word of her sentence, the punching bag exploded into a cloud of sand and dust. Before I realised what had happened, one of my teeth buried itself in the soft tissue of my cheek.

“Good, you don’t fall down like a pussy when I punch you anymore”. Nathalka said. I saw fire in her eyes. This whole situation was hurting her badly. I don’t think she ever had to deal with this much emotion in her life, although, what would I know about someone who lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. All I knew now was that Nathalka, for the first time since I met her, acted out of pure, conflicting, emotions.

“I’m not going to fight you in this state” I said. “My state? What the hell is that supposed to mean? You were a raging nutball before I worked with you. And now just because I’m a little pissed and stressed out I'm in ‘a state’. Well frak that, and frak you” and with that, Nathalka dropped herself backwards, catching her body weight with her right arm and kicked her left leg against my shin. I fell backwards but before my body hit the ground, Nathalka was on top of me, slapping me across the face. With every blow, I felt my vision get blurred. Although she was filled with rage, she still fought with perfect control, all her moves, although rough, were thought out perfectly.

I gave in. I closed my eyes and thought of what Miika had thought me in the past few weeks. Time seemed to stop, the punches became more sporadic while I managed to tighten every muscle in my body. I felt my blood pressure rising, my heart was beating in violent pulses. I clenched my teeth and opened my eyes again.

At that moment, Nathalka her eyes spread wide open and she stopped punching. I used the moment to lift my knee and push it violently into her ribs. She tumbled over backwards and landed on her back. I stood up, towered over Nathalka and said; “Alright. A fight it is”.

I grabbed her leg and swung her into the wooden benches at the side of the gym. When the dust settled, I saw her silhouette walk out of it. Completely unharmed. “It’s on, show me what you’ve got little orphan boy. Or are you afraid to play with the big girls?” she said with the same grin she had on her face the first day I met her. My heart warmed at her smile. It scared me, did she just cause a flutter in my stomach? This would be a fatal mistake if it was a battle for life or death, because this little moment of distraction gave Nathalka the perfect opportunity to disappear and reappear behind me. I felt her hands grab my wrists. She pulled my arms backwards, almost dislocating my shoulders. I arched my back to prevent my arms from breaking and felt her knee hit my spine with great force, forcing the breath out of my lungs. My focus was back in the battle, I inhaled and pulled my arms up, lifting Nathalka from the ground, raising her above my head and smash her back onto the floor. It ripped the linoleum and smashed cracks into the underlying concrete.

Back in Miika’s office, the force of the fight caused the room to shake. Dust fell down on Miika’s documents on his desk. Miika picked up the phone, punched in a few numbers and waited a while before he said; “Yeah, call the builders again, will you? Thanks”. He smashed the horn back on the phone. “Children”.

Nathalka laughed out loud. She had the time of her life. I smiled and reached out my arm for her to get back up. She grabbed my arm and threw me with all her might towards the other side of the room, through the same wooden benches I threw her earlier. I landed upside down against the wall and felt Nathalka’s fist punch my stomach almost immediately after. Due to my position, I could see her next move coming. Miika warned me for this, there is no such thing as foul play in a battle, so I raised my hands before my crotch and caught Nathalka’s fist before it could land its punch. I pulled her towards me so she landed practically in my arms. It was an awkward position, but this would prevent her from hitting me even more. We wrestled through the wreckage, I felt her arm tighten around my neck and her legs wrap around my waist. She was fighting dirty. I punched my elbows into her ribs to which I felt her grip loosen. I rolled her on her back and jumped on top of her, raised my fist in the air and smashed it down with all my strength.

Of course, Nathalka being the experienced one out of us two, she saw the punch coming miles ahead and just ever so slightly leaned to her right. My, once broken, fist landed on the concrete, ending the fight in another win for Nathalka. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His style was different from mine, less controlled, more spontaneous. Knowing full well he had only been training for months I was impressed. Some of my own Death Dealers were not even as quick in learning. He was no match for me yet, but It would have to be able to get the job done. I saw his last punch coming when he leaned over me, he swung his right arm backwards, so I moved my head to his left. I could hear the concrete breaking when his fist landed squarely on the ground. A poor planned move that only hurt himself. I grabbed him on his collar and threw him over my head backwards, landing him two meters behind me.

I stood up and walked towards him. A grin on my face. He grinned back. I was panting as I reached my arm out to Bardulf on the ground. “I need you to keep my family save Bardulf. Can you do that?”

He stared at my arm. Then grabbed it and pulled himself up. “As best I can, I promise you that”. He stared at his wrist like a sad puppy. I grabbed it to which he let out a slight whimper of pain. “Don’t be a pussy” I said. “It’s only bruised, if I would have wanted to break it, I would have”.

I used the next days to get ready for my mission. I trained with Bardulf in the mornings and went over my plans with my squad in the afternoon. I visited Kristan for some weapons advice and on the third day I was ready to move out again. While my team were packing our gear into our escort vehicle I said my goodbyes to Miika and Bardulf.

“I really wish you would let me stay” I looked at Miika with pleading eyes. I was hoping he would still change his mind even though I knew that his plan made sense. I couldn’t bare the thought of being away from the mansion when it was so vulnerable.

“My dear child, I am not sending you away. You are the best Death Dealer I’ve got, and this is the reason I can only send you on this mission”. Miika’s eyes looked pained. His face now showing the wear of his old age. “Trust in me, trust in Bardulf, you have trained him well”.

“I know, I know that he is ready. I just really hate leaving you”. 

“Not as much as I hate sending you away. But you must go back to their lair, disrupt their activities. If the Lycans get away with the blood, you will be the only one who can stop them!”. His eyes softened. “I know this is hard, but do this for me please?”

“Of course I will” I said and finished gathering up my things as Erik, Tuomas and Markus were getting ready loading our gear.

Bardulf stood at the end of the hallway leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He looked at me and smiled. “Better not break any promises Bardulf, or a Dark Vampire will be the least of your worries!”. He looked uneasy, not sure if I was joking or not. I smiled at him to let him know it would be alright.  
I turned and looked for my team. They were already outside ready to go. “Come on boys, we’ve got a job to do” I said as I shot into my long leather coat and walked out of the mansion.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Tonight, the Lycans will most likely destroy most of the Mansion. They will try to confiscate the elder Blood stored in the dungeons. I have evacuated every person from the Mansion that needs to be kept alive for us to survive, but we will receive a vicious blow to our will tonight".

Everyone in the mansion was at his highest guard. The tension was palpable and uncomfortable. Many of the Vampires were as young and inexperienced as I was, but we needed every soldier we could lay our hands on. Behind me, I heard a familiar voice call out my name.

“Bardulf, how’s it going, partner?”. For once I was glad to hear that annoying accent. I learned a lot of fighting in the couple of months, but I also learned to judge people by their actions instead of how the looked, walked or talked.

“Kristan! By the gods it’s a pleasure to have you here. A little more experienced help does not go unappreciated at these dire times” I said, and I meant every single word of it.

“Always a pleasure. I brought some toys with me. If you’d let me, I’d share these with the troops” and with that, Kristan rolled in a dozen of crates. He opened one to let me take a peek inside, and what I saw made my violent side go all giddy with joy.

“I’ve got silver nitrate mines, which we will spread out in front of the mansion. It’ll get rid of the initial waves of wolves. We’ve got grenades, crossbows, shotguns. They are amazing, how easy was it to replace buckshot with silver pellets. Pepper spray, pure silver paint basically and, as the proverbial cherry on top, silver knuckledusters. Instead of brass of course. Disadvantage of that one is that silver is quite soft, so make your punches count before it breaks.”

I was happy that Kristan thought of all that. But one thought kept spinning through my head. So much silver. It will most certainly come to bite us in the ass, as the Vampires have their own weakness too.

“You go make sure that everyone is properly fitted for the fight. I’ll report back to Miika. Let’s hope this isn’t going down as serious as we think” I said with too much hesitation in my voice.

I made my way through Miika’s office once more, thinking to myself if this was the last time I would be seeing this hallway and the large M on the door. The door opened before I knocked.

“Bardulf, good that you are here. Before this all goes down I need you to learn one final thing" Miika said from behind his desk, his ancient eyes dim with age.

“Tonight, the Lycans will most likely destroy most of the Mansion. They will try to confiscate the elder Blood stored in the dungeons. I have evacuated every person from the Mansion that needs to be kept alive for us to survive, but we will receive a vicious blow to our will tonight".

I swallowed hard. If Miika was not sure of our victory this night, things did indeed look bleak.  
“What you want me to learn?”

“Bite me".

“What the hell?” I shot into my defensive mode, what was he saying?

“You’re part Lycan. Bite me. You’ll receive all you need to know through my blood".

“You’re crazy, Miika, I can’t bite you!” I didn’t like where this was going. I wasn’t a blood drinker!

Miika got up from behind his desk and walked towards Bardulf.  
“DO IT!”

“But…” I hesitated, not smart in front of Miika.

“DO IT” His eyes turned blue, that same unnatural color Nathalka’s could get and the room seemed to darken, as if a thundercloud swept in before the sun.

At this point he reached out to me, grabbed my head with his left hand, and pulled me towards him. It felt like my head would let go of my neck.  
I opened my mouth to release a scream of pain. My teeth were exposed, and Miika forced them into his own neck. I felt my teeth bite through the soft Vampire skin. The metallic taste of his blood filled my mouth and nose. I felt sick, but before I could think about it, all went dark in front of my eyes.

“Drink it” Miika urged me.  
It was like someone plugged my brain into a computer and was copying data with high speed into my own memory. I saw every book that Miika had ever read, every life he had taken, every soul he loved, I saw Nathalka young and lost without her family, he reached for her and she took his hand. I saw every fight he won and lost. I was drinking his mind.

“Good, absorb it".

I felt Miika getting weaker while I got stronger. I managed to release myself from his grip. The world was glowing, making it easier for me to see. Everything seemed clearer now.

“You’re done. I can see it. You now also have my blood memories. Nathalka is the only other person who has those. But sensing what’s going to happen tonight, I thought it’d be wise to make a backup. You will be able to use them when the time comes". Miika looked at me and smiled. His neck was completely healed already and Miika had regained his strength again.

At this moment, the doors exploded. Splinters were flying everywhere.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is he, still alive?” The man shouted. “I need to see him, right now”.

How could this be. There was no alarm, no screaming, no exploding mines that Kristan had brought, yet I could feel the warm blood soak my skin from the wounds that the explosion had caused. I was shell shocked but kept my ground.

“Miika, stay here” I commanded. I turned my body around and walked towards the hallway. At this moment, I could hear gunfire starting. What was going on?

“Caught you by surprise, didn’t I?” I heard, but the familiar voice only confused me more.

“Elija?” I asked. I felt my blood boiling and did my utmost best to keep myself under control.

“Yeah, so many silver nitrate, didn’t account for a Vampire attack at all. Then again, you’d only be killing your own men with the Ultra Violet grenades” he said to me in a condescending tone.

“What in the name of the Gods do you think you’re doing, Elija?” Miika asked him, clearly not staying put as I had asked him.

“You are sending us to our own deaths while all you care about is this attention seeking outsider and fairness towards humanity!. You haven’t been the same in the past few months. Your obsession got the better of you old man, so we thought of taking matters into our own hands. Luckily, new and untrained Vampires are very susceptible to manipulation and fear. After that, it was very easy to just, open the back door and let the Lycans in” Elija said. I felt Miika walk up behind me, and I also felt that Elija’s ego was his biggest flaw. He didn’t fear Miika, a mistake I already realized.

“I will make you pay for this, right now” Miika said as he walked closer and closer to Elija. He stopped right in front of him, towering over the Vampire, yet he was still unafraid. I knew perfectly well what was coming. Elija was so full of confidence, his little plan had worked out perfectly, that it clouded his mind. He thought the battle was already won. I got out of Miika’s way, giving him clear way towards Elija.

“And how will you do that, old man?” Elija said. 

At this moment, the gunfire seemed to go quiet and Miika placed his hands on Elija’s shoulders. He smiled, turned his right hand onto Elija’s cheek, pressed down his left hand and tore Elija’s head clean off.

“Bardulf, they are coming for me, they need my blood. I will not mix myself into the fight risking myself to get injured, I cannot spill a single drop. As much as this pains me to say, I’ll stay here. You go and eradicate every single traitor in this building” he commanded me through clenched teeth.

I rushed through the hallway and ended up right where I thought I would. Behind the Rogue Vampires. They blocked the hallway to give Elija free play. I focused on Kristan who was commanding the troops to fight the Rogues while I saw the door behind him open. Lycans marched inside, right behind our troops. Kristan noticed it immediately to which he turned around, sought cover and opened fire against the Lycans. The first ones fell down immediately but more Lycans crawled in through every window and door of the mansion. None of the mines went off, Elija served his purpose.

I raised my fist to deal the first punch to a Vampire right in front of me but before I could land the punch, a claw dug itself into the skin of my face. I felt the blood slide down my face from the wound the Lycan gave me. It wasn’t the surprise that actually took me out, but it the immense force of the claw. This strength was bigger than any of the Rogue Vampires or Lycans I fought. I shook my head to regain my vision. I crawled back on my feet, pressing them firmly on the ground to tighten my muscles. When I raised my head I followed the anatomy of beast. The claws that dug itself into the wooden floor, giant legs that connected to a hairy barrel chested torso. I didn’t see a head, just teeth covered in saliva that slowly dripped out of the mouth.

I punched the beast straight on his heart. It should have stopped every normal Lycan, but not this one. My fist just bounced back as if I was hitting a trampoline. I lost my focus once more when I felt a blunt force hit my head and felt the two Lycan claws clamp around my head. He pulled me down and smashed his knee into my teeth. It felt like my skull shattered. Blood filled my mouth, drowning me, causing me to gasp for air.

I felt dizzy and fell on my knees. When I opened my eyes and focused on my foe, he came at me once more. He hit me with his full fist on my left temple. The blow threw me to the other side of the hall where I hit the wall.

“Come on Light One. Resist! Fight back! If you’re the best the Vampires have--”

Before he could finish his sentence, I jumped up and time seemed to stop. Everything looked like it was in night vision again. It was exactly like I felt with the Rogue Vampires in the warehouse a few weeks ago, but stronger. I could see every strand of hair of the wolf’s fur and saw his saliva hanging still in the air imperfect round drops.

I raised my fist to hit him in the back of the head. Time got normal again and I lowered my fist. The punch was so hard that the wolf collapsed and the shockwave blew out the tiles of the floor. He jumped up and kicked me in the head. He was still way too fast.

I dodged his next attack and grabbed his arm. It was absolutely huge and I had to use every bit of my strength to twist it around. The wolf turned in pain as I dislocated his shoulder with a loud snap, exposing his back to me. With my other arm I grabbed his other wrist, using both his wrists as counterweight, I pushed myself up and kicked him in the spine with both feet. I heard his spine snap, I let his wrists go and saw the Lycan fly through the air. He hit the wall and went straight through it, causing rays of light from the full moon fill up the hallway. That was the biggest mistake I ever made.

Every Lycan in the room grew a full meter in size, they stopped and howled at the moon, giving the remaining Vampires enough time to finish a few Lycans with some silver nitrate bullets. I was pleased to see Kristan still standing in the hallway. His expertise in gunfights was enough to almost single handedly kill of everyone of the Rogue Vampire. The Vampires were all youngsters, inexperienced and that fact gave Kristan the upper hand in the battle. A group of Nathalka’s Death Dealers came in from the east wing of the mansion. Opening fire on the wolves.

The wolf I was fighting crawled up against the wall, back into the hallway through the hole I created. He grabbed my head with one claw and I thought he’d crush it. I felt life flow out of my body, turning my world all black. He threw me inside the hall again and left me for dead on the ground. I couldn’t get up, couldn’t move my legs and couldn’t focus on my enemy.

Another wolf came shouting into the hall.

“I have got the blood! We’re just missing one!”

“It seems like I’ve got to finish you off right now. It’s a shame I couldn’t get a good fight out of you" said my attacker.

His mouth opened, exposing his fangs. I closed my eyes, preparing for his bite.  
I heard a growl coming out of the depth of his bowels. Warm blood splattered over my face. It didn’t hurt at all, which relaxed me a bit. Shame it should end like this, after all their work.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The remaining Lycan warriors retreated, back towards their hideout. Just before moonlight was replaced by rays of warm sun. The beasts were transforming back to their original form. Their fur shortened back to normal body hair. Their bodies were glistening in the light of dawn.

The sun was coming up and the Lycans, unaffected by dawn, carried on with their work. The men formed lines in front of their lair to carry in dead bodies. Their fallen comrades. In this sense, they weren’t much different than Vampires. They also cared about their fellow soldiers, friends, family. Countless bodies were carried inside and one coffin. The coffin was crudely hammered shut with long nails and blood was dripping from one of the corners.

"Have you got what you've been send for?" a deep voice growled out of the bowels of their lair. Footsteps echoed through the hallways when a man, dressed in a black robe walked up the stone steps towards the entrance of his hideout.

“I have sir! There are six packets of blood!” The leader of the Lycan pack replied.  
“Six? There were eleven elders, we drained four of them. Where is the blood of the eleventh elder?” The robed man demanded. “The eleventh elder was still alive. I tasted his blood, I’m positive it was the eleventh Elder!” the Lycan said, grinning with pride but the robed man wasn’t the least bit impressed by the Lycan’s achievement.  
“Is he, still alive?” The man shouted. “I need to see him, right now”.

Four Lycans dropped the coffin on the floor. Dust got cleared from the dirty stones and blood splattered out of the coffin. “You goddamned animals. Do you know what we have here?” The pack leader shouted. “Open it up, right now. Can’t you see he is bleeding profusely? I ordered you to get the blood of the Elders, not to spill it on the dirty floor!”

The Lycans immediately opened the coffin. Miika was near death. The Lycans managed to stop the bleeding with their crude medical skills. He did not regain consciousness.

“He is barely alive. If you say he is the eleventh Elder, we need to get him to Transylvania as quick as we can. Move through night and day. Keep his lid on, if sunlight hits him he will evaporate and all our work would be for nothing” the robed man said agitated. 

With a grunt the leader commanded his troops. Four of the Lycans picked up the coffin and lifted it from the ground leaving a small puddle of blood. The Lycans marched as a funeral procession towards three trucks parked outside their hideout. They loaded them up with their dead, wounded, and Miika’s coffin. When the trucks departed, all there was left was a cloud of black smoke and faint tire tracks in the last remnants of snow.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nathalka!” I heard him shout from the back.  
> I turned my head for a brief second “Don’t argue with me get out! That is an order!”

We prowled through the dark alleys of the Transylvania region in Romania. Erik, Markus and Tuomas were right behind me. I was able to pick my own team back, so I chose those who were closest to me, who I could trust my life with. We had been scouting the city and its surroundings for two days now. I was tense. I knew Miika would not have asked me to leave unless he had no other choice. We reached the city’s end and an old factory came up in the distance. We had been patrolling the area and keeping a close eye on our Lycan friends.

I checked in with the mansion every other day so we knew what to expect. One night I got back from my scheduled communication, I had to confront my team who were waiting for me to report. How was I even going to tell them what happened at Olavinlinna. My legs hardly held me up and my hands were shaking. “Nathalka what is wrong?” Markus asked, I couldn’t fool him with my calm Death Dealer demeanor.

“The attack on Olavinlinna happened last night, there were complications, I just spoke to Bardulf. They were betrayed, by Elija or so it seems. I don’t know any details” I tried to focus and remember exactly what Bardulf had told me. I looked at my team. Their eyes were almost burning with anticipation. “They took the blood from our cellars”.

I knew the moment I left Olavinlinna that I was making a mistake. I couldn’t stand the idea of the mansion being under attack without me to command the troops. Although I had faith in my kinsmen, we all had our own specialities. There were fighters, medics, engineers and commanders. I left them without their best commando’s, medic and leader. I felt I was proven right by my gut feeling and got punished by not listening to it.

Erik let out a sigh of frustration. I knew he felt as powerless about the situation as I did.   
They started discussing amongst themselves. “But that is not all...” they stopped their bickering right away and looked at me. “Miika has been taken... by Lycans”. I said. Blinking my eyes, hiding my own emotions. 

“He has been WHAT?” Markus’ eyes nearly popped out of his head. “What the hell went down over there?’.

“What and why isn’t important now Markus! This is why we are here. This is why Miika asked us to leave the mansion. So there was a last line of defense! And like it or not but that is us now!”. My team shuffled with their feets, knowing I was right. 

“Now,” I breathed in deep “someone better get me a schematic of that factory. We’ve got a rescue mission to plan”.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Lycan warriors arrived in the Transylvanian factory with the elder blood and Miika firmly tied up in chains. His wounds were healing now but he was in no position to offer a fight.

“Put him in a cell. Our mistress would want to drink from him herself when she awakes from her slumber” the leader of the pack said.

He went into the cellar where a makeshift laboratory was set up and a small man in a lab coat awaited the pack leader with great anticipation. 

“Do you have it?” the small man asked.

“Almost all, here are the packs from the cellar at Olavinlinna” he opened a bag and dumped the bags of blood on the table. “Start the process, our mistress should awake soon. The eleventh elder is downstairs in a cell. Our mistress can drain him dry herself” the pack leader said with an evil grin. 

The pack leader walked out to the laboratory and up the stairs. “Gather around men!” He shouted into the halls of the factory and Lycans came scrambling to the main hall.

“I have tasted the last elders blood and took his blood memories. There is a group of Vampires near our headquarters led by Miika’s pet Death Dealer Nathalka”. He spat her name as it was both familiar and deeply hated by the Lycans. “By now they have for sure gathered intel on the disappearance of their beloved elder. Be on your guard men, these are no mere aristocrats, they are Death Dealers on a warpath”. He looked around the circle to stress his point.  
“Our mistress is being awoken as we speak, we cannot have a group of Death Dealers interrupt the sacred process! Lets prepare a little surprise for our guests. Get to work!” his shout echoed through the walls.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had to wait until nightfall the next night to move out. This gave us time for a plan. We would move in on the factory from the back, closest to the entrance to the cellar where we imagined Miika to be held captive. I gave the halt signal and we spread out. We reached the factory and I slowly pushed the door open. It was very rusty and it took a great effort to push it open. The Lycans must use another entrance.

Inside it smelled awful, like a sewer pipe on a hot day. I coughed a few times and slowly proceeded in, closely followed by Erik Markus and Tuomas. It was darker than the night inside and I could hardly make out objects. I took a moment to let my vision get used to the darkness. Carefully I put one foot in front of another. It was quiet too quiet. The only sound was that of our leathers crackling as we proceeded in.

“Wait” I whispered. I got a strange feeling in my stomach, the kind of feeling you get when you know that somewhere thing’s aren’t right. Quickly I tried to put the information of my surroundings together. “Something is wrong” I said, as I concluded this wasn’t a usual Lycan lair. For one, Lycans were not quiet, and they didn’t like living in complete darkness.  
We took a few more steps forward. All of a sudden someone switched the light on.  
In reflex I covered my eyes with my arms. I was blinded by the light but quickly blinked my eyes to regain my eyesight.

This is wrong, this is really wrong.   
I felt my heart racing, we were in trouble. Just as I had thought that a pack of Lycans moved in from the other end of the room. They knew we were coming.  
I ducked behind a small wall that offered hardly any cover. 

We opened fire on the Lycans and they shot back with equal vigor. We were out numbered that much was clear. As I hit the Lycans with a few silver rounds, they had no choice but to shift into wolf form to work the silver out of their system before it killed them. This was an opportune moment for us to strike.

“Markus, Erik go down to the basement. Find Miika get him out, go, go NOW!” I shouted as I inserted fresh clips in my twin berettas. Markus and Erik dove into the stairway and ran down the stairs. I heard gunfire from downstairs and just hoped Markus and Erik would be able to fend them off themselves.

Tuomas and I got out of cover and leaped over the group of transforming Lycans, now being at their back gave us the advantage of laying down fire from both sides. Two Lycans did not make the transition because they were already too badly damaged. Another was now in full wolf mode and made a leap for Tuomas who barely jumped away in time. I immediately raised my weapons and fired a quickly calculated shot with my left handgun. The bullet flew threw the air, my heightened senses made it look like slow motion, slowly it flew threw the air and pierced the back of a Lycan head. Without looking to the right, I fired my right pistol, the Lycan betrayed itself with his heavy, animalistic breathing, and the bullet had punctured his eye before my head made the turn.

I felt a dull knock to my head, not nearly enough to knock me out but it staggered me. A wolf jumped at me. I caught myself with my hands, causing my pistols to glide over the floor but also giving me the opportunity to kick my right leg up right into the Lycan’s stomach. I felt my left boot fill with blood as I spilled the beasts guts over the floor. Kristan’s silver heeled boots were a godsend.

I smiled, but it got quickly wiped from my face as I saw Tuomas being jumped by two wolves. I had no time to worry about him because, before I knew it, another wolf was on me. The Lycan lashed my arm with his sharp claws. I cursed as blood dripped to the ground. Quickly I retrieved my fallen weapon. I kicked him away from me and put three bullets through his head. His brains splattered on the wall behind him. 

I scrambled to my feet, as I looked over I saw Tuomas’ face get ripped off by one of the Lycans. I didn’t look away. The sight was hideous and all I could hope for was that the death was instant. He died serving with me, death in battle is the death us Death Dealers hope for, albeit not too soon. I jumped for the Lycan and drew my blade from my boot. As I came down on his back I stuck it’s blade into my foes head. The Lycan yelped as I withdrew my blade and he fell to the ground.

I looked up and saw Markus and Erik come up from the dungeon with a cloaked figure in between them. They have him, thank the elders they have him. I let out a sigh of relief.   
As I did that, I felt sharp pain manifest in my shoulder. Markus’ face contorted as he looked at me. I smelled blood. I was hit. I spun around, guns ready. A second wave of Lycans arrived in the big hall. I jumped behind an old working bench as more bullets flew around my head. I got up and opened fire on the Lycan horde that came in. I heard Markus shouting from the back entrance.

“Markus get out of here! Get Miika to safety go!” another bullet hit me in my upper leg.  
I hissed in pain but never slowed my firing rate. Taking out another Lycan with my bullet salvo.

“Nathalka!” I heard him shout from the back.  
I turned my head for a brief second “Don’t argue with me get out! That is an order!”  
Another bullet hit me in the abdomen and I fell to my knees. My left gun clicked. Out of ammo. Another bullet hit me in the arm. I fell on my back and saw Markus and Erik leave the building with Miika. I smiled and closed my eyes as another bullet buried itself into my torso. I had done my job.

Just as my vision blurred I heard a strange melodic female voice.  
“Wait”.  
Somehow the Lycans seemed to listen because my head was still attached to my torso. “Don’t kill her yet, that would be a shame” were the last words I heard before I passed out.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We have to go back!” Markus yelled in panic at Erik after they ran for a few kilometers dragging a nearly conscious Miika between them.

“Did you see those guys, there is nothing we can do for her now!” Erik shouted. “We need to get back to the safe house, make sure Miika is okay and contact the mansion!” He saw the panic in Markus’ eyes. And as horrible as it was, he admitted he feared for their friends lives as well.

“Nathalka is my sister, man! She’s the only one I’ve got!” Markus said tears welled up in his eyes, not from emotion, but from the pure hatred he harbored for their attackers. “She could get killed!”

“I know, but the two of us are no match against them, we must send word to the mansion” Erik said. “You know we can’t go back. If we do that we’ll get killed and Nathalka would have died for nothing“. He noticed that he already thought of her as dead. Then again he saw her go down in the battle. 

He grabbed Markus by the arm and they ran off into the forest, to the safe house, where they would stay during daytime, take care of Miika and contact Bardulf and the mansion.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up with a searing pain in my body. I was on the cold floor in a cell of some sort. I am not dead. Was the first thought that went through my mind. I tried to move but the bullets in my body wouldn’t let me move very far without doubling over in pain. I used the wall to push myself into a standing position so I could scout my surroundings. My Death Dealer training took over. I need to try to find some way to escape.

“Oh Nathalka, don’t you know when a battle is lost?” It startled me. Even though the cell was dark I had the feeling I was alone. But the same person who earlier told the Lycans to wait was in here with me. Who is that? And worse, why did it know my name?

“Who are you?! Show yourself you coward!” I yelled. My heart was racing in my chest.  
I tried my best, but feared that my voice would break and reveal the fact I had never been this scared in my life.

“This is not the time for your tough act, Nathalka, not when your life hangs in the balance” the stranger replied as I heard her approach. Some light shone in through the bars of the cell door. I could smell blood on her breath. She wasn’t Lycan… she was a Vampire. The Dark Vampire.

No it can’t be. 

I saw a dark figure cloaked and hooded approach from the the other end of my cell. The face was masked, long hair was draped over her shoulders. 

The cloaked stranger walked up to me and grabbed me by the throat. She held me up by my neck the tips of my toes dragging the floor. She was extremely strong. I gulped in bits of air as she tried to choke the life from me. I tried to fight back at her but there was no use.

“Aah, Nathalka… Miika’s own little pet… I’m sure we will have loads of fun with you” she said, her mask not moving an inch but I felt she was smiling. She threw me to the floor after a punch deep in my stomach. I landed with my back on the floor, curling up into a ball I coughed and tried to catch my breath again. My lungs filling themselves with precious oxygen. At times like these, being immortal was a true curse. To be deprived of oxygen, feeling your brain burn away inside your skull screaming for fresh air, for an eternity, was truly a fate worse than death.

Two Lycans entered the cell. Both still with blood stains on their bodies from the fight earlier.

“Tie her up against that wall, we will have a little fun before this is over. We knew you were coming, you know that? You should have. A brilliant mind like yours did not think of the blood memories from your Elder? A rare flaw from the great commander, Nathalka. Although, I must say I am surprised that you managed to break out your Elder amidst the battle. It proves that you must never get a Lycan to do a Vampire’s job” she said with a snarl towards the Lycans behind her. “He might have escaped, but I’m sure your buddies will come looking for you. And then we will throw them a little surprise party” the cloaked figure said as it laughed a high pitched laugh and walked away.

The skin on my throat bruised as I was violently dragged away and pinned up against a wall with my arms above my head. 

The female Vampire turned around, walked up to me and stroked my arms. When she got to the bullet hole in my shoulder I flinched. 

“Ahw my dear, that must be painful. Let me help you with that” she walked off to the dark end of the cell and came back with with a small knife. I started breathing faster. Not trying to give away my distress.

With her long lean fingers she cut away the fabric that covered the shoulder wound, and without warning plunged the blade deep into the wound. I bit down on my lower lip, drawing blood. I made a muffled noise. I would not scream, not for her, not for this freak of an experiment. She poked around the wound and a warm stream of blood trickled down my torso. When she found the bullet she popped it out. The metal made a loud clank on the hard cold stone floor of my cell. 

“There, that must feel better” she said in the sweetest voice possible as she moved down to start working on the bullets in my legs. She got out 3 more bullets when I nearly lost consciousness. A sharp slap to the face made me resurface. 

“You are not tired yet are you?” she asked as she stroked my cheek with her hand. “Your wounds already start to heal, I see”.

“Go to hell traitor” I spat at her. 

“I have been Nathalka, and I can tell you it isn't pretty” she answered.

Drops of sweat stained my face as I tried to control my breathing.   
A searing pain ripped through my abdomen as she inserted the blade in another bullet hole.

“This one must be deeper than the others” I felt her push the blade deeper in as I got ready to lose consciousness again. I heard a loud clang and she moved the dagger away from me but the burning pain did not stop.

“Ahw, it broke! But that was one of my favourites!” It took all my force to open my eyes and see her walk away. “Ah well, we’ll leave the rest for some other time”. She moved for the door, knocked three times after which it opened. She and her Lycan guards left my cell.

Being alone, I dropped down my head and drifted into unconscious bliss. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The lycans had left the mansion, taking everything they needed along with them. Nathalka had to leave us here, she left me in charge, made me promise to protect the mansion, to protect her family. I didn’t mind that I failed the coven as much as the fact I failed Nathalka.

Kristan helped me up, I felt his cold gloved hand wrap itself around my wrist. I saw every Vampire, man, woman and child work to board up every hole in the mansion to prevent sunlight from coming in. The battle was over but Vampires were still able to get hurt by small rays of sunlight.

“Did Miika…” I uttered. “He jumped right in front of you when that Lycan tried to tear you apart from limb to limb. I’m afraid they took him.” Kristen replied immediately his eyes looked grave.

“Dead?” I asked fearing the worst. “I don’t think so. They need his blood, so they probably want him alive for the time being. Are you alright? I thought your head was going to come off when that beast hit you.” Kristan asked. “Left a nasty wound though”.

“I fail…” I tried to say that I failed the coven but Kristen interrupted me.  
“You did what you could. If anyone would say you failed, they haven’t seen the monsters we were up against. They were Elite’s buffed by the full moon. Our own troops betrayed us. It was a lost battle from the start”. He was right, but I didn’t want to believe it. It would have spared so much life if we just handed the lycans the blood. I looked down. There was a body next to my feet, the body of a young girl, she looked barely twenty years old. Her face was beautiful, the back of her head was missing. I didn’t know who were Rogues and who were our own Vampires, but I cared for every loss. Even the Rogues had been lied to, manipulated by Elija.

While the adrenaline in my body slowly disappeared, my wounds started to give off their dull, beating, rhythm of pain. I raised my fingers to my head and felt loose skin at my temple. When I looked at my fingers, they were smeared in blood and hair. Blood was streaming over my face, I’d had these gashes looked after on a later time. Right now, I had a more important task at hand. I managed to find our communications officer in all the ruckus. We set up a transmission with Nathalka. The fact that she kept her calm when I broke her the news scared me the most. I’d rather have her scream at me, wishing me dead, than complete silence. If only she showed some emotion, give me a clue to what she feels so I could make the right decision.

Three days have gone by. The mood was grim but we started to pick ourselves up. Kristan and I took up Miika’s office to create a base of operations. When I leaned over Miika’s old desk, it felt like I looked through his eyes. I memorized his past decisions in combat which helped me to make educated guesses about what to do next, although, I’d rather have someone else be in charge right now.

That night one of the Death Dealers came into Miika’s office which I currently used for planning. “It’s Markus, they’ve got Miika!” I let out a sigh of relief. Thank the gods they were already there, ready to strike. “But Nathalka and Tuomas have been compromised during the mission. Tuomas is dead, they are not sure what happened with Nathalka”. Her eyes were pained. So much death, so much loss. I did not respond right away. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “Gather your men and women. We are going to Transylvania”.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Miika is Dracula?” Erik looked at his patient in shock.

The flight to Transylvania seemed to take ages. Nathalka was captured, or even killed. I shivered, I did not want to think about that right now. She was tough, she would be fine. From the landing zone we drove unmarked trucks to our safe house near the city. I entered the safehouse Markus indicated their location to be. 

“Bardulf!” Markus said walking up to me and slapping me on the back. Clearly relieved to see me. “Bardulf, it was an ambush man, they knew we were coming. It was a frakking miracle we got out with Miika! If it wasn’t for Nathalka we wouldn’t have….” his eyes grew dim. 

“Hey” I said. “That is why we are here, we are going to get her out! I promise you” I tried to console Markus in any way. 

“Yeah we will!” Markus replied as he led me to the back of the safehouse. About a dozen tubes filled with blood ran from a big machine into the lifeless form that I assumed was Miika.  
“He will be okay” Erik said as he walked up to me and shook my hand. “We are keeping him in a comatosed state so he can heal faster. It looks like you could use some first aid too”.

The wounds on my face and back were healing very slowly. They would certainly leave a scar or two. “I’m good, i’m fine. Do we know if they’ve used Miika’s blood to create their Dark Vampire? They needed the blood of the original Vampire to complete their science project.” I said.

“Miika is Dracula?” Erik looked at his patient in shock.

“No” I replied. “He is Judas. He was cursed by god to roam the world forever and could not die. He was the first true immortal. The Wolves are a special breed, they evolved from those who were cursed by God, through pure hatred for all that is living. They are allergic to silver, because of the 30 silver coins Judas got for betraying Jesus. In pure guilt, he hung himself from an Aspen tree. God cursed him so he could not die. Therefor to kill an elder Vampire you need a stake that is made from the wood of an Aspen tree”. I spoke without conscious thought. I had Miika’s blood memories and they ran through my veins as an extremely old movie. “Many can claim they were the first immortal, but the true first would not brag about it”.

“How do you know all this?” Erik asked, his eyes were big. 

“Miika let me consume him. His memories run through my blood. He said they would be of some use at some point, but all I see now are his sins and guilts. Erik, gather all the troops. We have something to discuss. I’ll be here in ten”.

With that said, I turned around, asked for my living quarters and left for them. When I closed the door of my room behind me, I fell down against it. I let the panic take over my mind, it was horrible. Mere months ago I met Nathalka and now I was in charge of her coven. So many died or were incapacitated. Vampires that lived for hundreds of years have died and the faith of our existence is now in the hands of about thirty, new, inexperienced soldiers. How could I help the legacy to survive and thrive, when only six months ago I thought they only existed in myths. Blessed or cursed with a so called sight, a third eye to see what’s hiding in the shadows, presumed dead in a fire, and now in command of the last of the Vampire kind.

I had to snap out of my train of thought. Frak this shit, I can not let my inability to cope with emotions compromise our final mission. We didn’t do this for ourselves, we did this for the Elders that died, we did this for Miika. I did this for Nathalka. We would need a miracle, it was going to be thirty against three hundred, but I would do my best to make that miracle happen.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After four nights of torture I broke my promise to myself. I screamed…

Slowly I opened my eyes as I saw a blurry world refocus itself. Bloodstreams flowed from my face dripping on the floor of the dungeon. It had been days since I had been captured.  
Did Markus and Erik make it? Was Miika still alive? I had no idea... was I still alive? I thought so. I’m bleeding, so I’m still alive.

I couldn’t feel my hands, they were still tied above me in an awkward position. My leathers were ripped by the whip lashes I had received two nights ago. Was it two nights? It was hard to keep track of time. My wounds had stopped regenerating after a few nights of beating and bleeding. The iron smell of my own blood made my fangs water. I’d give anything for a drop of blood, any blood.

I tried to move my body, let some blood flow into my limbs. An agonizing pain came from my left side where I had been cut by a short blade. A piece of blade stuck in the wound. If only I could pry it out. 

Why didn’t they just kill me? What did they want? Ransom me for Miika? I had no clue, to what their plan was. Why not kill me? I would never follow her in battle. No, whoever is in charge likes torture too much. I shivered in my bonds.

I heard someone picking at the lock and the big wooden door to my cell blew open.  
An old Lycan came in with two silver whips, grinning from ear to ear. It was that time of the day again and he had been looking forward to it. 

“What do you want from me?!” I yelled through clenched teeth as I felt the lashes scratched open my barely closed wounds.

“I want you to break, Nathalka“ the soft voice of the female Dark Vampire said. I looked up and she was also in the cell with us. The Lycan’s whip cracked on my back, parting the flesh as if it were mere cloth. I pressed my lips tight together, I wouldn’t scream, not for their pleasure. Hot tears of agony streamed down my face. Why couldn’t they just kill me... 

After four nights of torture I broke my promise to myself. I screamed…


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unidentifiable words came from Nathalka’s lips. She had lost her mind.

Lightning lit up the black sky. The final fight would be held before dawn came up. Whatever happened in that factory, it had to be destroyed. Their research, their intell, and all their troops would have to be eradicated. We had so little time compared to Finland where the nights were still longer than the day. Here in Central Europe the nights were relatively short, giving us no time for improvisation. We worked on this plan for days but had no more time to spare. It was now or never.

I told Erik to ready the soldiers. Kristan had outfitted them with the necessary armor and weaponry. It was shocking how little was needed to equip our entire army. We were scared, hungry and inexperienced but tonight we had to fight for our future. Our future, not theirs, mine too. I hesitated, I didn’t want to go into the den of evil, not for the Lycans but out of fear to find Nathalka, beaten and broken or burned to a crisp. I never had this much fear in my life, I never had this much responsibility but by the Gods I wouldn’t let this get the better of me. I was done doubting, it was time to act, to show my troops what they could do. It was time to take back what was ours.

I walked through the long hallway. It was filled with equipment. All we had was a small safe house but we made the best of it. Generators were powering everything. When I reached the end of the hallway, I stood in front of a room filled with soldiers. Geared up and ready.

“Vampires!” I shouted. “Tonight we will fight. We will fight for our dignity! I don’t care if some think it’s a lost battle, I do not care if some think we are rushing to our deaths. I am not planning to die tonight, nor tomorrow night, nor the night after tomorrow. I am planning on kicking Lycan ass, I am going to make it as difficult as I can for them. This is not about saving the world, rescuing humanity or fighting for our right to live. No. This is about pure, blooded vengeance!”

The crowd cheered. I didn’t mean a single word of my speech, I was prepared to die tonight and I was not fighting out of revenge. I wanted to end this uncertainty, this pressure, this war, no matter the outcome. Yet, that was not what the troops needed to hear. They needed to get angry, they weren’t skilled commando’s, they just had to have a kill death ratio higher than two, preferably ten.

Kristan walked up to me with a map.  
“We will attack them from the rear, it’s a double bluff. They knew Nathalka got ambushed there so we would be wise to avoid it. It also gives us the same advantage as Nathalka had originally planned. A bottleneck, a hallway big enough for 3 lycans next to each other. If they come at us, it’ll be shooting like fish in a barrel. Once the initial wave has died, we make our way into the main assembly area of the factory. Once there, you will take over as planned. You are the better commander of us two, just let me find her”. I said to him.

“We’ll be alright, partner. Just get yourself some proper equipment besides that silly little spud gun of yours” he handed me an assault rifle and four magazines filled with silver nitrate bullets. “I also have this. You will probably need it”. Kristan handed me two grenades and one clip for my colt. “Ultra violet. Just make sure you don’t aim it at someone you don’t intend on using it on”.

“Kristan” I said. “We’re going to level this place. Burn it to the ground. I don’t care what they were experimenting on in there, I don’t care about potential research that could benefit the Vampire race. When I’m done in there, we will destroy that entire factory, you hear me?”  
“Understood” he replied. 

It was time. It felt like the last twenty minutes of a movie, the climactic end scene. I also felt relieved, that after this it would be over, but before that, I’d give the Lycans frakking hell.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Unidentifiable words came from Nathalka’s lips. She had lost her mind. She hung from her bonds naked and broken. Her body black and blue from the beatings and caked in a layer of blood and grime. 

The stairs crackled and the dungeon doors opened. The hooded figure walked in.  
Slowly Nathalka looked up, clearly surprised by the fact that she was not accompanied by any Lycan. The hooded figure walked closer and reached her hand out to Nathalka, slowly stroked the side of her cheek. Nathalka closed her eyes, slowly to absorb this small act of kindness.

“I hope they haven’t hurt you too much, I would hate it if they hurt you too much” the melodic voice of the hooded figure sung.

She pulled her hand back and before Nathalka could blink she backhanded her across the face.

“Ahw, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you” the voice continued playing with Nathalka’s head.

She lifted her hood and revealed the most perfect face with blinking dark brown eyes, an ivory perfect white skin and long silk black hair. She was stunning. She leaned forward closer to Nathalka’s face. She tilted her head and gently kissed her lips.  
“Do you know what the problem is?” the Vampire asked. “Your kind has grown soft, weak, decadent. You’ve forgotten the travesty of your births you’ve forgotten the blessings you live under” she spoke her words as an enchanted melody.

“We were the rulers of the world. The world trembled in fear by the thought of us. But now… protecting mortals? Protecting humans? Drinking synthetic blood to save their miserable little lives?” she moved closer again but this time she didn’t look as friendly, her eyes grew dark.

“You guys are pathetic! Not worthy of the title Vampire!” she spat as she smacked Nathalka across the face for a second time, the chains rattled above their heads. Her face changed again, she smiled and looked sweet and innocent. She took hold of Nathalka’s face and gently wiped the dirty hair from her blood caked face.

“Don’t you see? You leave me no choice, I need to protect the species” she said as she walked to the back of the room where the table of torture instruments was located. She ran her silk fingers over the instruments and stopped when she found a pair of pliers. She played with the thing for a few moments then walked back to Nathalka.

Nathalka started moving, making her chains rattle as her brain began to slowly catch on.

“This gives me no pleasure at all, you should know that” The Vampire sang as she grabbed Nathalka’s face with one hand and pushing her jaws open with the other. Nathalka tried to fight but her body was too tired, too drained. She to scream but the only thing that came out was a pathetic hoarse shriek. With the pliers the Vampires got hold of her fang and with a sickening crack pulled it loose.

A blinding pain surged through Nathalka’s body and fresh tears of pain ran over her face. She tried desperately to fight the Dark Vampire off. But her body would no longer obey to her will, it was too weak. She could only watch helplessly as the stranger pulled her second fang free. Blood streaming from her mouth down her throat and lips as the stranger let her go. One last agonizing scream of defeat found its way from her throat, then she just hung from her bounds, silently.

Defeated.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No it could not be her, it could not. There was no way this pile of flesh belonged to the charismatic Death Dealer I met for the first time months ago.

Vampires are very delicate and discreet creatures. As I watched them making formations at the back of the Lycan factory, I could smell the filthy stench of Wolven sweat. The Vampires didn’t make a sound, they never trod on any rotten wood or dead leafs. Although most were inexperienced, they were instinctively silent. 

I walked up the ranks, signaled to Kristan and took my place at the back door. One of the Vampires peaked through the lock. It was basic and silly, but every bit of intell about how the situation was inside could be vital to our success. Seeing all these Vampires lined up, ready to go, fear eliminated from their minds gave me a feeling of confidence. Maybe we could do this, if we just stuck to the plan.

Thunder cracked in the distance and rain started to fall. It smelled delicious. The smell of dead wood in the rain, the smell of life rising out of its dead host, float back into the sky to fall down again with the rain. Everything felt good, it felt like even nature was on our side. We naturally had the cover of darkness, and now we had the disorientation of thunder as well.

I opened my coat. I was wearing my long coat since many, many months. I unclipped my gun holster and laid my hand on the grip of my pistol. Slowly I pulled it out, clicked the safety off and aimed it at the door. I looked at Kristan again, he nodded at me, and I gave the Vampire next to me the command. We shot the door with two silenced pistols. The only sounds of the weapons were muffled by the rain. A thunderclap deafened us for a few seconds, but after it rolled away we could hear the faint cries of dying dogs. I opened the door and saw three Lycans on the floor, other than that it looked empty. Kristan commanded his squad through the hallway. It was completely devoid of life, but the loud grunts of Lycans were audible in the distance. Kristan stopped, I couldn’t see why, but I quickly knew. Kristan asked for a cutting tool and with that he cut a tripwire in two. When I looked at the walls, I could see crude spike traps ready to crush anyone who tripped the wire. 

At the end of the hallway was a clearing. I wasn’t happy, there was no initial wave of Lycans rushing towards us. That meant that the Lycan army was still at its maximum number inside this building. Kristan’s squad took position at the clearing to which I commanded my squad to take place besides it. When I caught up with Kristan, I could see the assembly floor. It was filled with over a hundred lycans. All perfectly gathered next to each other, oblivious about their impending doom, working away to fabricate new weapons. It was too good to be true, but also too good not to use. I signaled to Kristan, ten of us would throw silver nitrate grenades. It would lose us our cover, but it would be an amazing start of the battle in our favor.

Kristan, eight soldiers and I pulled the pins out of our grenades. We arched our arms back, let the safety go and waited for three seconds. After that, we tossed the little black orbs into the room. They exploded almost immediately on impact, perfectly scattered around the room killing almost all of the Lycans. I ordered the Vampires to take cover behind the balustrade. We then raised our rifles and took out the remaining Lycans one by one. The sound of gunfire was deafening but it didn’t drown out the screams of the dying animals below us.

“Erik!” I yelled when the gunfire ceased. “Where are the dungeons?”.  
“Jump down to the factory floor, at the north east corner you can see two old work benches, behind those is a door that will lead to a set of stairs. At the bottom are the dungeons” he said.  
“Be prepared, Lycans will come storming in and they will bring Elites. hold your backs against the exit and listen to Kristan. If Nathalka is still alive, she will be down here”. I replied. Much to Erik’s chagrin. “This is crazy, she is dead!” he said to me in an angry tone.  
“I’m not going to discuss this with you again, I have to do this, you survive!”.

With that said I jumped over the balustrade onto the work floor, right between the bleeding and twitching corpses of the Lycans. I ran towards the work benches Erik described and found the door. When I turned my body to ram the door with my shoulder I saw it.   
One of Nathalka’s pistols was laying in a corner, barely visible, covered in dried blood.

An overwhelming sense of dread clouded my mind. With a loud bang I bursted through the door. The sounds of screaming around me were deafening. As new Lycans entered the hallway, undoubtedly with more tactical finesse, I hoped that my fellow soldiers would manage to survive long enough. As I ran down the stairs, a smell became more and more pungent. I reached the dungeon door and pushed against it. It didn’t budge. It took a step back and focussed. I channeled all my energy into my body as I rammed it into the cell door. The hinges snapped off and the door swung open.

As the cell opened, the stench of rotten flesh filled my nostrils. I had to recompose myself not to lose the contents of my stomach. The stench came from a naked lifeless body hanging from a wall at the other end of the dungeon. I wondered why there weren’t any guards down here, but it quickly became clear to me that there was nothing left to guard anymore.

No it could not be her, it could not. There was no way this pile of flesh belonged to the charismatic Death Dealer I met for the first time months ago. As I slowly approached the body I knew it had to be her.

“I’m here! Nathalka, I’m here!” my voice unsteady as I spoke. She did not move in response of my voice.

The truth was, I was pretty sure she didn’t hear me and I was only trying to comfort myself. I didn’t even know if she was still alive. She was hanging from the wall by her arms, dried blood stained the floor of the dungeon. Her body was a mixture of dried blood, blue bruises and mud from the dungeon. Not one trace of her once fair skin were detectable. On her back, strips of loose flesh hung from her body. I fought hard not to retch as the sight and smell of her combined in my brain. My eyes started to tear up. I felt like I had failed her. 

I drew my blade from my boot and pried open the locks to the chains that bound her wrists. They clicked open and her body fell limp to the floor. Just before she hit the ground I captured her in my arms.

“Nathalka!” I wiped her hair from her face. Her face was swollen with bruises. I hardly recognized her. “Nathalka please! Come on, open up your eyes please!”. I checked for a pulse it was barely noticeable.

I shook her body in my arms her open flesh wounds started sticking to my clothes. For the first time ever I did not give a damn about my coat.

My heart was torn. It hurt so bad, the sheer panic in my head. She couldn’t be dead, after all she did for us, she gave everything, she deserved so much better. I had to save her, I owed her that. I loved her.

Blood, she needs blood. I grabbed the small dagger and slashed it across my wrist. A sharp stinging pain went through my system as my blood began to flow freely from the newly parted flesh. I held my bleeding wrist near her mouth hoping she would take the liquid.

I opened her mouth with one hand and noticed her gums were bleeding and her fangs were missing. My gods what have they done.

“Come on” I said as I pulled her into a more upright position “You need to drink!”. She didn’t move “COME ON” I shouted as tears welled up in my eyes. “You never gave up on anything, not even on me. You never had to take me under your wing, you never had to endure my bitching. You never gave up, even when I was killing you. She had to drink. I thought to myself. She never gave up on me, and I sure as hell wouldn’t give up on her.

My blood stained her lips but she wouldn’t move. My tears mixed with my blood flowed down her neck and dripped to the floor of the cell.

“I can’t let you leave Nathalka, not now and not like this. It’s not like you!” I pleaded with her to listen. “We need you! Come on!” I said, ready to give up.  
“I need you… please".

Suddenly her eyes shot open glowing their familiar blue glow. She parted her lips taking my blood into her system. It was a weird feeling to feel her drink from me. It didn’t hurt, on the contrary, it was the most rewarding feeling I had ever had. When I started to feel dizzy I softly pulled my bleeding wrist from Nathalka’s lips. Her head fell back in my arms, but now she looked me in the eye.

“You... came” she said, her throat hoarse.

“Of course I did!” I said as I rocked her body in my arms. “Why the frak wouldn’t I”. I cried my eyes out and hugged her close to me. I felt lightheaded of the blood loss but I didn’t care. 

“It’s going to be okay Nathalka, I promise you. You need to rest now” I took of my coat and wrapped her in its soft material. I closed the buttons so she would be decent, unexposed. Only after I buttoned her up I noticed how silly that actually was but I didn’t care. I lifted her body into my arms and she weight near to nothing. I carried her across the dungeon, the sound of gunfire becoming louder with every step I took towards the exit. By the time we got upstairs the smell of blood and gunpowder joined the sounds of gunfire and screams of Lycans. 

At top of the stairs Markus was waiting for us, he had managed to overcome the Lycan attack. He was a lot stronger than most gave him credit for. Ever since Nathalka had taken him on her team he had grown into an efficient Death Dealer. He held the door open with one leg, giving me room to carry Nathalka out of the dungeon. The covering fire of both Markus next to me and Kristan on the other side of the room caused an impenetrable crossfire that gave me clear way back to the Vampires.

Markus followed me closely, still aiming at the Lycans and shooting with deadly precision, but when we arrived at Kristan and Markus’ cover fire was done, he immediately dropped his weapon and turned towards me, grabbing Nathalka from my arms.  
“Bardulf, what the frak have they done to her! Is she alive?” He screamed at me.

“Barely, but there is nothing we can do for her now. Take her to the truck she will be safe there and bring back the bomb. We have to overcome this battle, else all her suffering has been for nothing” I said and meant it. Markus nodded and took Nathalka from my arms and moved out of the building.

“Kristan!” I shouted as I rushed up back to the stairs. Bullets were flying around me, when the Vampires saw me coming, they gave everything they had to keep the Lycans at bay.  
“We’ve got her! Take in positions! Markus, run!” I commanded and saw Kristan salute to me. The fact that Nathalka was safe relaxed me. I thought I was going to make it, I actually thought we would live through it all, until that very moment.

“Bardulf!” a female voice shouted through the building. Every Lycan stopped at their place, and so did I.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “After I turned Vlad Dracul into a Vampire, God took me. He killed me, send me to hell. That is an even worse punishment than what his angels got. But then, oh then, the Lycans came to this brilliant idea of searching for their ultimate weapon and recreated me. They fought so hard to get all the blood needed for the ritual and now they are mere puppets under my command.

Markus only knew how far the trucks were parked from the factory after he ran for ten minutes with Nathalka in his arms. When he reached the trucks he pried the door open with one of his hands, smearing blood over the handle and the window in the process. He bend down as he laid Nathalka on the warm backseat of the car.

“You’ll be safe here, sis, and I swear to you. I will find whoever did this to you and he will pay with his life” Markus said to his sister, as a tear rolled down his face. He gently placed a kiss on her forehead and wished that his sister would open her eyes. To tell him that everything would be alright as she always did when he was afraid. After their parents died Nathalka was always there to console Markus. They were alone in their new world. But with Nathalka by his side, he knew that everything would be okay. He hated leaving her here, exposed to the elements, even if it was for only a few minutes.

There was a package, covered by a blanket, next to Nathalka. Markus grabbed the blanket and pulled it over his sister. He then grabbed the exposed package and opened it up to see if all the contents were there. This bomb would do the trick, but he wished it was bigger, just to make sure it would burn every Lycan who tried to run away from the blast. 

With a pain in his heart, Markus shut the car door and ran back towards the factory, keeping in mind that he would leave Nathalka alone for mere moments to make sure her torturer would die. When he got near the factory the shouts of his fellow kin and the stench of blood and guts filled the air.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

The female voice that called out my name came from right behind me. It wasn’t the voice that scared me, nor the fact that she knew my name. What scared me was that every Lycan stopped. Normally, they wouldn’t listen to their Alpha Male, they were wild, angry, uncontrollable, but right now they didn’t move a muscle. They feared the origin of this voice. The gunfire stopped. The Vampires were also affected by the new sound piercing their way through their ears. Seeing the effects she had on both Vampire and Lycan, I feared the worst. The hope that I would make it out of this had all but disappeared.

“You are becoming a nuisance, Bardulf. You took away my toy” and with that, the voice faded away in the distance. The Lycans immediately turned around and as soon as they were out of the room, metal grates dropped down at every doorway. They cut off half of the vampire squad. I looked behind me and saw that the door we came in from was also blocked. I was trapped on the assembly floor with nine Vampires, and I knew perfectly well what was going to happen.

“It’s a trap” I said while I turned towards the soldiers. I looked at them with regret. “I’m sorry” I said. I saw the faint white and blue sparks from a blowtorch appear at the doorway. Kristan was already cutting open the door. All I could do was wait for the inevitable. I closed my eyes and I felt the warmth of the lights hit my face. I had missed that feeling. The feeling of warm sunlight. A trap had been set, and we tripped it. Large lamps were hidden in every corner of the high ceiling in the dark. Our own cover of darkness was used against us. The assembly floor had been lit by improvised lights spread all over the work floor, leaving the ceiling, and weapons, perfectly hidden in the dark.

The Vampires screamed in agony as the artificial UV light slowly vaporized them. Their skin was literally burning off, leaving their bare flesh exposed to the ultra violet rays of light. The soft tissue was the first to go, eyes shriveled up and turned to ashes, after their skin was gone their flesh started to melt. I wished the death was instantaneous but it seemed to took forever. The screams would not stop. As their bodies turned to ash, it was their screams that were the last to die. After what seemed like minutes, all there was left were bones and ashes, bones in the shapes of humans trying to claw their way out of their death.

“Why didn’t you just kill us at the start!” I shouted. “Why wait so long! Why let your precious Lycans get slaughtered before you took action?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine what her reason behind this delay was. It made no tactical sense, not one single bit.

“Oh come on” the voice replied. “Like I give a damn about these mangy felines. You’re facial expressions were to die for. Quite literally. You actually thought you had won. Now, come along, I’ll open the door for you”.

A door to my left opened up. I looked at the floor and rubbed my face. When I raised my head, I saw that Kristan was halfway through the blocked door, but I had to do this. It was calling me, so I walked towards the open door.

The door lead to a long, marble hallway. It was decorated with paintings and pictures, dating back from the sixteen hundreds to as early as last year. The entire factory was a cover, we knew that, but I didn’t know it was this big. As I walked over the marble floor, my footsteps echoing through the room, I captured some names under the pictures and paintings. I didn’t recognize any of them, or so I thought, because deep inside my brain a distant bell rang its sound. I had no reason to know these names, none whatsoever, yet they seemed familiar.

At the end of the hallway were two large doors. They were designed like gravestones, rectangular, massive and gothic ornaments placed on them. The doors were dark grey in color and seemed like they were made of solid stone. When I walked up to them, they opened themselves, revealing a dark room that got slowly filled with light. A figure was standing in the middle of the room.

Who I saw was nothing I expected, to say the least. All I knew was that the voice came from a woman, but nothing in our intell suggested there was a female Lycan in command. The Lycan chain of command was dominated by males, the Lycans had as much equal rights in their society as Donald Trump had hair. It was far from a civilized race.

When the woman stepped into the full light, I saw her for the first time. She looked so familiar, yet so incredibly frightening and unknown. Her black hair draped over her shoulders, her eyes were brown and deep, able to hypnotise any person who would stare in them for a prolonged time. and her skin as white as snow. She had a perfect figure, her thighs and arms were broad, conveying strength and power. She was the warrior soul incarnate, and she was not on my side.

“Welcome Bardulf, White Wolf. I have been waiting for you. You come to rescue your precious friends? Or that person you secretly love, desire?” her voice was enchanting like a siren's call. “Who are you!” I shouted back as I tried to get her voice out of my brain. “ Oh come on Bardulf, do not disappoint me now” she said with a pouty face. But as she smiled it dawned on me. She wasn’t Lycan. She was Vampire. The Dark Vampire…. it couldn’t be? Miika’s blood wasn’t taken … or was it?  
“You’re the dark Vampire” I answered coolly. “Bravo! Bardulf” she clapped her hands enthusiastically. “You’re not as daft as I first expected, good” she smiled slyly. “I am Carmilla, the official first Vampire”. I was immensely confused. None of it clicked. My memories, the conversations with Miika and even Miika’s memories were conflicting. Even though I possessed Miika’s memories they were chaotic in my brain and all chronology was lost. How could this be? Miika was the first Vampire. 

“But, Miika…” I started but she never allowed me to finish. “Miika was never acknowledged as the first Vampire. He was a Legend, nothing more than a myth. I am official, the real thing, baby” her flirtatious voice said to me. It was irresistible. I wish Nathalka was here, she would’ve kicked her ass before I could take my eyes off this beautiful woman’s figure.  
“Just like your precious Elder, I was also cursed to roam the earth for eternity. The prospect of eternity being so, well, very long and tedious, I opted to take my punishment on my own terms. I kept my true form.” She continued as she let her hands roam over her body in a seductive way.

“How come I have never heard of you?” I asked her, fighting hard not to fall under her spell. She was stunningly beautiful and I expected that she used her charms and beauty lure in her prey before she killed it.

“Maybe you should read more mortal books my dear Bardulf” she said and giggled like a young girl. “Oh that’s right, now that you hang out with the Vampires you tend to forget your own mortality. Don’t you?” she looked me straight in the eye. Scary as it was I had to confess, I often forgot that I wasn’t one of the immortals like the Vampires I fought aside. My life had an expiration date and as I had learned, it was long overdue.

“After I turned Vlad Dracul into a Vampire, God took me. He killed me, send me to hell. That is an even worse punishment than what his angels got. But then, oh then, the Lycans came to this brilliant idea of searching for their ultimate weapon and recreated me. They fought so hard to get all the blood needed for the ritual and now they are mere puppets under my command.

Miika’s memories came up in my head. The book of the dead, he learned me the dead Vampire language, taught me the spells of the undead.

“Prædicta omnia, quatenus opus sit…” I started to chant without really realizing what I was doing. “Oh no no, no you won’t” Carmilla said, her eyes turning to an infernal red color  
“Repeti possunt, donec obsessus sit omnino liberatus". I continued, I didn’t seem to have control over my own being, let alone could I make sense of the words I was using.

Carmilla’s eyes were wide open as I walked up to her. When I stood in front of her, I could smell her delicious odor, I wanted to do nothing but adore her, yet I was not in control of my body at this moment. I raised my hand, extended my finger and touched her chest, right above her heart. I could feel her heart beating, her warm skin was trembling underneath my finger. It felt almost human. Carmilla screamed and a wave of heat blew me away from her, snapping me back into reality. I landed at the doorway and looked at Carmilla. She was vulnerable, she had a weakness. She was missing the blood of the eleventh Elder. She did not consume Miika’s blood. Nathalka’s sacrifice has not been in vain.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Your parents locked you up and they never thought twice about your death, but it were the Lycans who killed you. They took your life away, and I am the only one who can give it back. Join me, let me taste your blood and together we can rule”.

I slowly got up my feet. I felt tired and underpowered, Carmilla’s spell was taking me over. My brain shouted for my body to move, to fight, to destroy her. It felt like a hundred versions of me were all screaming commands at me at the top of their lungs, yet I could not obey any of their commands. I felt like a true mortal, weak of flesh.

Carmilla walked towards me. I tried to take my mind of her beauty, one of her weapons. One of her most effective weapons, I had noticed. She walked with the elegance of an angel but conveyed the presence of a demon, she was a force to be reckoned with. She was the Dark Vampire, my equal and opposite reaction. We were different sides of the same coin. Ironically, we were both equally incomplete, equally flawed. The so called perfect beings were nothing but abominations born out of immoral experiments.

“I know you cannot resist loving me Bardulf. I love you too. I have been waiting for centuries to meet you. We need to be together, we can rule the world together. We are the mythical beings that religion has feared all those millennia". her voice was like a soft melody ringing in my ears.

“I cannot love you, Carmilla. You are evil, I am good. You are darkness, I am light. You are fire, I am water. If I die, you die. If you die, I die". I realized we didn’t speak out loud. We looked each other in the eye but it seemed the words were formed in our heads.There was a connection between us. It was both fascinating as it was frightening.

“Why die if we can both live? I died once, and I assure you, it is boring. Eternal life, in heaven or hell, is all the same. You can’t experience new things for eternity, there is no one to torture or love, no sadness or happiness. Heaven is bliss, but there is no bliss without misery. It is nothing but emptiness". she said as she moved closer to me. “The Vampires, the Lycans their powers grow pale compared to what we can achieve together you and I. We are both parts of the same whole”. She moved closer and stroked my face. She raised my head and brought her lips towards mine. My brain flooded with lust, a lust for power, a lust for her. 

“Bardulf!” the shout from a familiar voice made me reconnect to reality. Though it seemed far away, as if coming from under water. Markus landed behind Carmilla as he jumped from the darkness high above in the room. A loud scream from Carmillas lips made me break the bond she had on my mind. 

I looked at Markus, he was soaked to the bone. Water was pouring in through the broken window. A flash of lightning revealed the broken glass high above in the room. When I turned my head to Carmilla, I saw a large wooden stake protrude from her chest. It had the same ornaments on it as on the large doors. They seemed to be made from stone, but were in fact made of wood. Yet it didn’t kill Carmilla, it merely annoyed her.

“Aspen wood. Good find, but I’m not that kind of Vampire, you silly boy” Carmilla said as she grabbed Markus’ shoulder. “I’m the perfect combination of both worlds, you should know that. I cannot be killed by silver, Aspen wood or sunlight. I’m not like that Elder of you, who was unworthy of the Vampire name”.

“Not worthy? And that’s for you to decide? Just like my sister was unworthy?” Markus said as the blind anger filled his eyes with tears.

“Well Nathalka was quite a little toy. We had loads of fun with her” Carmilla giggled as she licked her lips. “How is she by the way? Send my regards to her if you would be so kind”. Markus tried to punch her but it only took a small wave of her hand to send Markus flying through the room. She pulled out the stake with her free hand and the wound seemed to close almost immediately.

The thought of Nathalka helped me snap out of her hypnotic trance. I had to win this, for her, for the coven. I had to beat this witch for my own damn good. I grabbed Carmilla’s shoulders, pulled her upper body down and smashed my knee into her face. I raised my right arm, felt my fingernails dig into my skin as I made a fist, and brought it down directly on her left temple. Carmilla got knocked sideways but didn't lose her balance. When she raised her head and straightened her hair, she was her own beautiful self again.

“Do you even know who you are, Bardulf?” she asked. Looking me sultry in the eyes.   
“Kill her Bardulf!” Markus shouted from the other side of the room.  
"You have no memories of your youth. Isn't that true?" Carmilla said to me. The love in her eyes changed to sadism.   
"Have you ever wondered why you were selected to be experimented on? Why you survived? No one had the answers so you neglected your own history. You may think you had the ability to see demons, werewolves and ghosts when you were a kid but in reality, you were just a paranoid schizophrenic. Truly, have you ever seen a demon or ghost since you worked with the Vampires?"  
"Shut up!" I yelled at her through clenched teeth, trying to clear my mind from her intoxication. 

"You can't even remember anything from the last year! You never survived that experiment Bardulf. You haven't lived ever since. You are empty. You're a parasite, feeding on other entities, other lifeforms, sucking up their energy and using it for yourself. Their energy is for you, what blood is to a Vampire. But I can change all that. I can consume you, give you a purpose in life".

"Don't listen to her!" Markus yelled as her scrambled to his feet and rammed a dagger in Carmilla’s body. She screamed and pulled Markus’ arm away. I could hear the bones snap on several places in his arm, his eyes widened and filled up with pain. Markus fell to the floor, rolling his body up in a ball because of the agonizing pain.

She turned around and turned towards me.  
“Your parents locked you up and they never thought twice about your death, but it were the Lycans who killed you. They took your life away, and I am the only one who can give it back. Join me, let me taste your blood and together we can rule”.

The world started to tremble. It became dark. “No, you’re lying. It’s not true” I said in anger. My body was shaking, every muscle tightened itself and saliva was thrown through the air with every word I spoke. “Am I now?” Carmilla said. “Even Nathalka thought you were too dangerous to be around, you drained her of her energy as well. Did you know she begged to die? Pleaded for me to kill her when I ripped the flesh of her bones with my bare hands”.

I felt surrounded by fire. I felt my back burning, like wings that were scorched off. I screamed at the top of my lungs, and felt cold replacing the heat. My breathing was heavy and irregular and with every gust of air that got pushed out of my lungs, I growled. It felt like my muscles ripped through my skin, my teeth felt like they were pulled out of my gums and my spine felt like it would escape my back.

Carmilla growled playfully. “Look at you, you are a big boy aren’t you. You just need to be tamed. I will have fun taming you”. 

Carmilla leaped towards me, exposing her fangs, ready to bite me, feed off of me. I quickly threw a fist through the air, uncoördinated like a drunk, and hit her on the jaw. This time, the impact made Carmilla stagger. It gave me the perfect opportunity to grab her neck with my left hand. I raised my right foot and stomped it down onto her knee, bending it in the most unnatural position.

Carmilla went down like a bag of sand. I stepped over her, both feet at either side of her, and grabbed her arms. I pressed one foot on her spine and pulled her arms towards me, snapping them both out of their sockets. I got my foot of her back, stepped aside and looked at her. After a moment of pity, I kicked her with all my might in her side, launching her through the room. She disappeared in the dark distant corner of the room where she so elegantly walked out from earlier this night. The room went quiet. “Is she dead? Why is your hair all white, Bardulf?” His questions were answered by the unsettling sound of breaking bones. The soft snapping and crunching of limbs and a silent weeping laughter filled the void.  
“You will have to do a lot better if you want to kill me” she said. “Although I must admit, this does sting”..

When the crunching stopped, it got replaced by the clicking of her heels on the marble floor. Carmilla, gorgeous as ever, walked into the light.   
“Bring it, you’re nothing more than those other filthy Lycans. You are incomplete, weak and I will tear you apart” I shouted at her.

I jumped into the air and raised my knees to my chin. I came down like a cannonball, extending my legs to plant my heels firmly onto Carmilla’s chest. She caught me like a pro, wrapping her soft fingers firmly around my ankles, and smashed me into the ground. My head created a decent dent in the stone floor. Carmilla dropped on her knees and raised her left fist. She smashed it with all her might into my face.

“Stay…”. Her right fist smashed into my left eye.  
“The…”. Her left fist hit my right cheek.  
“Frak…”. Her right fist broke some of my left teeth.  
“Down!” Her left fist tore the skin on my forehead. Blood was pouring into my eyes, practically blinding me. Carmilla screamed as Markus jumped on her back and bit in her neck. She tossed Markus away again, knocking him out stone cold by hitting his head on a the wall.

I didn’t know what to do anymore. I couldn’t focus, move or see. Maybe I hadn’t been trained enough. Maybe I just wasn’t meant to destroy this woman. Everything we had fought for, every life we had given, maybe it was just not meant to be. We are equal and opposite, one can not live without the other. It was all wrong. One could only live if the other was dead. We could not exist together. Carmilla was planning on draining me dry, to consume me into her new form just like she had the elders.

“Time to die, White Wolf”. Carmilla said as she exposed her fangs. She plunged them deep into my neck, piercing my jugular vein. The pain was indescribable. I felt my muscles shrink again, the skin on my head seemed to relax and my limbs went numb. I saw the past months flash before my eyes as Carmilla fed from me. Meeting Nathalka, the coven, my training in the mansion, Nathalka smiling at me, everything seemed to fast forward through my brain.

Carmilla raised her head in an agonizing scream. “No! What is this!” she screamed. “Get it out of my head! Get it out!” She shouted as she clawed at her face, tearing off the skin and pulling out her hair. Blood started to seep out of her self-inflicted wounds. A drop fell down on my cheek. It was warm, reassuring, empowering. An electric shock went through my body as the drop hit.

She was expecting an empty vessel, a perfect source of energy to feed from. Untainted by alliances, neither Lycan nor Vampire. She expected to find me as I was months ago, before Nathalka found me. But she was in bad luck. I was no longer searching, no longer empty. I had found my purpose, found myself. I wasn’t empty, I had hope I had a future, I had found love. There were parts of me that evolved, made my heart grow stronger. For Carmilla, my blood was tainted. We were no longer compatible. She felt my emotions as strongly as I did and it ripped her apart from the inside.

Carmilla was clawing away, trying to remove the horrible burning in her brain, trying to pry it out with her own fingers. Blood was flowing over her pale neck, covered her full breasts and soaking her dress.

It was time to strike. I wonder if Miika had known this would happen all along. And perhaps that is why he let me work with Nathalka for all these months. I grabbed one of Carmilla’s hands and pressed it down on my wounds. I started absorb Carmilla’s life’s energy. Just as I had accidentally done with Nathalka, but this time I was in charge. I drained every bit of life out of her. I saw her face go pale, her blood stopped dripping out of her wounds, her eyes went white and her once voluptuous figure shriveled up. Her nails fell out of her fingers, her teeth fell out of her gasping mouth and her breathing sounded dry and panicked as I felt my bite wound closing up, my vision became perfect and even the scars on my face seemed to tighten back to perfect skin. It was way too much for me to handle, my body was on fire and I was hyperventilating as a madman. My nose started to bleed and my fingers were breaking Carmilla’s wrist but then, Carmilla let out her final breath.

It was over. She may have been the Dark Vampire but she made a mistake. She had not accounted for my time within Olavinlinna. She had never counted on Nathalka.  
We shall not fear the light nor dark. We shall not fight alone in a battle lost, for one made of dark shall walk through fire and bring light back to us. Though darkness nor light shall cease to be, for one needs other to exist.  
We might need each other to exist, like day needs night and cold needs warmth, but it is impossible for both to exist at the same time. Only time will tell what would become of me.

My body had been in overdrive, my energy was spent. I let myself slip away in the darkness of unconsciousness.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “NO, I can’t leave without her, I already left once without her I’m not doing it again". Markus said as he pushed me roughly out of his way.

“Bardulf… Bardulf!” Markus’ shouting broke through the darkness in my brain. Slowly I opened my eyes. The world became clear in front of my eyes. I filled my lungs with air and tried to move my fingers.

“Markus, are you ok?” I asked.  
“I’m fine I am okay” he muttered through his coughs. As he regained his composure, he got up from the ground and offered me his arm. “Can you get up?” he asked. I tried to move my body. It still hurt like hell but with the help of Markus I could get up. I raised my arm and wiped the blood out of my eyes so I could have a small part of my sight back. Markus grimaced due to the pain in his shoulders.

We hadn’t won this fight yet. As Markus dragged me towards the exit, gunfire started to echo through the halls again. If I’d never hear a gun go off in my life, it would still be too many.  
When Markus opened the door towards the assembly floor, the sound became louder. Inside, Kristan and five other Vampires were defending the bomb from the Elites. I could see smouldering carcasses lying on the floor. Many had died tonight.

“I’ve got him!” Markus yelled. “Covering fire and retreat to the exit, only perfectly aimed shots, no random fire, spare your ammo!” Kristan commanded. It was clear that only the best of the Vampires had lived through the night as they followed his orders perfectly.  
“Detonation in twenty seconds!” Kristan yelled as we made a slow retreat towards the back door. I couldn’t say a word as I got dragged out by Kristan and Markus. When the cold night air hit me in the face, I felt relieved, refreshed, but the cold didn’t last for long as the bomb went off moments before we got out, heating up the air around us and scorching every part of the factory and Carmilla’s lair. We had to make sure no mortal would find out what had come to pass here. As I left the factory I felt both emotionally as physically drained.

“We must leave, before the dawn catches up on us” I said. It was time for us to go home. To start building a new life.

When we arrived at the trucks we found blood tracks, my breathing stopped for a second. My fear was proven accurate when we didn’t find Nathalka in the truck. Markus turner around and I saw his normal grey eyes turn cobalt blue, almost as if they glowed in the dark.

“Where is she?” I heard the panic in Markus voice.

“WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!”. He yelled as he grabbed my collar and pushed me against a truck, fear radiating from his eyes.

“I don’t know.." I said as I looked him in the eye. I didn’t know. Judging from the bloody tracks through the grass it seemed like she had dragged herself off.

We searched the beginning of the forest for any sign of Nathalka, but when the sun started to creep over the treetops we really needed to go.

“Markus we need to go, sunlight is coming” I said.

“NO, I can’t leave without her, I already left once without her I’m not doing it again". Markus said as he pushed me roughly out of his way.

“We have to think about the coven… about Miika… they need you now” I tried to hide that I felt just like him, leaving here without Nathalka seemed wrong, but I think I understood her motives. We didn’t rescue her, she was never up for rescue. What we did was give her a chance to die a death she deserved. A death away from the horror’s of the dungeon. This notion burned like an empty pit in my stomach. I didn’t share my feelings with Markus though. 

“FRAK the coven, what has the coven ever done for me? NOTHING, the only person in this frakked up cursed world who has ever done anything for me is GONE. GONE you hear me? Nathalka was the one who cared! And she is gone!” Markus yelled, I saw the panic in his eyes, it made my own eyes tear up as well.

I walked away towards the truck, talked to some of the soldiers.They moved in and grabbed Markus from behind and dragged him into the truck. Markus’ desperate screams went through my core, through my bones.

“If we leave she’s DEAD, DEAD you hear me Bardulf! She doesn’t have the luxury of walking in sunlight like you and I! We could stay! BARDULF! You can’t do this Bardulf! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” Markus yelled as they shoved him into the back of the truck. I felt as if I had died within. My body would heal nicely, but a part of me died that day. Markus’ cries died out when the doors of the truck slammed closed.

I stood on the hill and breathed in deeply. I had served my purpose in the coven. I had made Nathalka proud. Wherever she was.


	32. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When I closed my eyes a tear ran down my face, my mother, my father, my sister. I was going home.

Every creature on this earth dies alone.

Or so it was always told.  
The truth was, as I dragged myself off into the woods with my last strength, I didn’t feel alone.  
I felt the dawn was near, but I didn’t fear it.  
Finally, after centuries I would become part of the cycle of life again.  
A cycle that my kind has been breaking for centuries.

As I saw the dawn wash over my face for the first time in over 300 years I didn’t feel scared. It was the beginning of spring and the world looked beautiful and ready for new life.  
I was relieved, the sun was beautiful I didn’t remember it being so big.  
When I closed my eyes a tear ran down my face, my mother, my father, my sister. I was going home.


End file.
